Friday February 15, 2013
Nostalgic yarns
IN Brickfields And Beyond: Stories From The Past, author Balan Moses combines history and fiction in painting a picture of an almost-forgotten past.
The stories in this book reflect the lifestyle of a community that existed 50 years ago, a memory that for many is in danger of being erased by development and the passing of time.
Characters in this book (his second one in five years) are fleshed out from his first book, Brickfields: A Place, A Time, A Memory, a non-fiction historical account of Brickfields that was published in 2007.
Watch these characters come to life in stories culled from tales from the author’s childhood days.
Some of the stories are set in the iconic Hundred Quarters along Jalan Rozario and Jalan Chan Ah Tong, which has been slated for demolition.
In a blurb written by the author, who is a veteran journalist and pastor at the Zion Lutheran Congregation (ZLC) in Brickfields, Moses says he hopes the book will help “inform, educate and entertain Malaysians of all ages, especially the young, on life in close-knit neighbourhoods like Brickfields half a century ago”.
He has also included a social commentary on the traditions, customs and socioeconomic practices that governed the lives of the people who lived in this era.
All proceeds from the sale of the books will go to the Hands Across Brickfields Ministry, a project by the ZLC to feed the poor in the area, including the destitute, struggling single parents, drug addicts and the homeless.
ZLC is a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia which has one of the oldest places of worship in Brickfields with its Zion Cathedral built in 1924.
The self-published Brickfields And Beyond: Stories From The Past is available at all major bookstores for RM30. — Rouwen Lin
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