By Trailerman Sam
Three decades of hibernating, not in person, but in my writing. That was what has been happening to me. Now I am being given a lifeline to put what was (is) in my mind into words.
A big thank you to fellow writer Jeff Yong — nandri (thank you in Tamil), kam siah (Hokkien) and of course, I can say it in Japanese, Korean, Tagalog and a few more lingos.
The good thing is that I’m on my personal computer with Microsoft Word. And not banging away with the old Olympia that used to kill the silent night or chased away Mogini, an Indian and very much
pretty ghost that moonwalks in front of you and leaves a trail of aromatic scent of jasmine scent.
Now it (the typewriter, of course!) is stored away safely. Who in the right state of mind would want to have Mogini locked up in their cupboards, together with a box full of letters that I used to get from
people all around the planet.
Talking about letters and stamps, the new generation, especially students in my tuition class, often had their jaws drop at the sight of those stuff. For them, it’s things like emojis, gifs, stickers, avatars and
lots more which I still have to master.
The only avatar I know of is the character of Jake Sully who lands on the planet Pandora and dreamwalks into Na’vi Land all in blue and with a tail in the awesome Avatar the Movie lasting three hours and
12 minutes with special effects.
Gone are the good old days of cursing the postman if he were to pass by your house without dropping any letters into the red-coloured letter box. Remember the rule by Pos Malaysia? No post box, no
letters! The post box is still there but you only tend to find electric or water bills each time you take a peek inside.
Penny for our thoughts: even Telekom Malaysia has stopped sending bills in physical form. So, have the good old days gone by us? Yeah, indeed the good old days are gone forever and will never return.
So is the price of vadai, a fried savoury snack native to South India that used to be the size of a flattened tennis ball with a small hole in the centre. Now the hole is bigger and so is the price!
Roti canai or roti prata used to be at least 10 mm thick, round and very fluffy, flooded with very thick gravy to dig into. Now you need a Vernier Caliper to measure the thickness of this flatbread. Gone are
the teh-tariks that tend to stick to the glass even after licking every last drop of the wonderful stuff.
Jeff, my current mentor, says I must try to bring back the readinghabit. I am all for it. The problem is how to make the young ones love the read habit. It all depends of what’s written for them, I reckon.
Books are not the in thing for most of them in this age of WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Cap-Cut, etc. Their world revolves around these apps 24/7.
On the contrary, there are those who still love a good read. I have one student now who will search for this and that on the Internet (or Wikipedia to be exact) so that when she goes to school the next day,
she can have her classmates agape in wonder as she narrates about a lost kingdom or anything she may be asked.
Back to the issue of how to make these young ones read more and make them realise that the world is full of interesting happenings. For me, I would say this is where the writer has to think and feel like
the young ones.
Oops! It looks I’ve exceeded my 700-word limit. Must cap it here although I’ve just returned from my writing hibernation. But let me say this: there’s always a child in every grown-up. So, let loose that child for him or her to roam and mingle, and share what a teenager’s mind and heart is looking for. Feel their pains, their stresses, their loss, their jealous feelings and most of all, their loves (puppy love or
crush all included).
It looks like I may be spending many long nights tapping away on the keyboard with endless bottles of expresso coffee at my side. Still, it’s better off than the tick-tack, tick-tack clatter from the Olympia some
30 years ago.