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As I was Passing by Adibah amin
Nov. 24th, 2010 07:23 amI had actually been eyeing this book for the longest time. I should have just bought it all those while. What a perfect waste of opportunity. I must admit that I don't read much from the local authors. But this book just caught my eye. Probably because I have heard of Adibah Amin since I was a child, but I had never read any of her works before.
Adibah Amin used to be a schoolteacher in the early years of her career, where she even rose to become a headmistress. But she then decided to quit schoolteaching and jump into the world of journalism. This book is a compilation of a weekly column she wrote for The New Straits Times, titled As I was Passing, which she wrote under the pen name Sri Delima. It was first published in the year 1976, but the copy I bought is a much more recent re-print of the compilation.
Basically, this book is written about "everything under the sun". And that everything under the sun also features a glimpse of what life is like in Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s. The city was only starting to flourish at that time, but it's surprising how the everyday things KL-ites go through those days are pretty similar to what we have nowadays. I guess some things just don't change. And some things are just too Malaysian and is probably here to stay :P
I suppose the varied theme is what made the book fun for me to read. It was different than how it is today, and yet you could also find many similarities. But what I really feel a loss for is the way of living. It just seemed so... peaceful. The kampong life she described just sounded so nice, and this thoroughly born and bred city girl feels like she missed a lot... in many ways.
But that just makes me more determined to buy the next installment of the book. And any other stuff she's written that I can get my hands on ^^
Adibah Amin used to be a schoolteacher in the early years of her career, where she even rose to become a headmistress. But she then decided to quit schoolteaching and jump into the world of journalism. This book is a compilation of a weekly column she wrote for The New Straits Times, titled As I was Passing, which she wrote under the pen name Sri Delima. It was first published in the year 1976, but the copy I bought is a much more recent re-print of the compilation.
Basically, this book is written about "everything under the sun". And that everything under the sun also features a glimpse of what life is like in Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s. The city was only starting to flourish at that time, but it's surprising how the everyday things KL-ites go through those days are pretty similar to what we have nowadays. I guess some things just don't change. And some things are just too Malaysian and is probably here to stay :P
I suppose the varied theme is what made the book fun for me to read. It was different than how it is today, and yet you could also find many similarities. But what I really feel a loss for is the way of living. It just seemed so... peaceful. The kampong life she described just sounded so nice, and this thoroughly born and bred city girl feels like she missed a lot... in many ways.
But that just makes me more determined to buy the next installment of the book. And any other stuff she's written that I can get my hands on ^^
