May of last year, I was up at 5:15 a.m. to
get my son off to school.Not feeling
well (lack of sleep, perhaps), I went back to bed. A phone notice woke me up, informing me that
my story “On Fridays” from Lovers and Strangers Revisited, which I recently rewrote and blogged about, was being discussed in a Collaborative Teaching at Universiti
Teknologi MARA or UiTM—Penang (Bertam campus), led by Associate Professor Dr. Mohamad
Rashidi Pakri of USM (discussing the literary aspect of the story) and Nazima
Versay Kudus of UiTM.
Previously, during Covid lockdown, I had
been invited by Nazima to join Google Meet to answer questions about my short
story "Neighbours" also from Lovers and Strangers Revisitedfor her Faculty of Health Science students.
This time around, since it involved about
sixty students from several classes from Health Science, who are learning about
narrative writing, it was more practical to record and share the session among
the students than to get them all together at one time, even online.
Surprisingly, I had not been forewarned, or was I a last-minute inclusion—hey, let’s wake up Robert to see if he’s available!Either way, I was too late for the discussion,
but I did manage to join the Q & A session.
“On Fridays,” the first story from Lovers
and Strangers Revisited has been published over a dozen times in seven countries. In 2003, it appeared in The Literary
Review (USA) and Frank (France) in a joint publication. I had sent the story to the editor of Frank,
unaware that he had been asked to be the guest editor of The Literary Review,
so he chose “On Fridays” for their joint issue on Expat Writing. The story, about an expat living in Penang,
Malaysia who sits beside a crying woman in a taxi, later appeared as a reprint
for Cha: An Asian Literary Journal in 2010. Since then, the story had been revised several
times in my effort to finally get it right…
I would like to have listened in the
session, to hear what the students thought of the story since they would be freer
to discuss it without the presence of the author—for fear of embarrassing
themselves or offending him—so why did we have to read that stupid story in the
first place? It nearly put me to sleep!Hopefully, no one said that or felt that way!
By the time I came on board, or online, (freshly
showered and wide awake) some students may have already left (is he coming or
not?) The questions they did ask me were
straight forward.Why did he, the unnamed
first-person character, feel compelled to hold her hand instead of just
speaking, “Hi, how are you?” Was it important
that she wore traditional clothes?Did
the story really take place?Was it a
true story?More than once, in the past,
I had been asked, “Have you found her?”“Are
you still looking for her?” Many of these questions I had discussed in the
Story Behind the Story (which I wrote for all seventeen stories
for the MPH publication), about how the story came to be written, how the story
evolved after its initial publication, what significant changes I made to the
story (and why) that led to subsequent publications overseas…
Having wrote the story in 1988 (first published
in the March ’89 issue of Female in Singapore), I feel honored that the
story “On Fridays” is still being taught in 2023, 35 years later, and it still
resonates with university students who can identify with the characters, even a
lonely expat inside a share taxi on a rainy day sitting beside a crying Malay woman
reading a letter on blue paper…
—Borneo Expat Writer
My interviews with other Malaysian writers:
Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.
Every few
years I get this urge to rewrite the 17 stories from Lovers and Strangers
Revisited.No doubt that seems
silly and a waste of time for most writers since the book has already been
published. Had I not done so, it wouldn't been published a second or a third time!Originally published in Singapore as Lovers and Strangers (Heinemann Asia,1993, Writing in Asia
Series), I revisited the stories in 2005 when a Malaysian lecturer requested to
use the collection for a course on Malaysia and Singapore literature.The book—after consulting with an editor and
going back to the original inspiration for each story, visiting many of the
original settings and overhauling the stories, adding new scenes,
back-stories, and endings—was republished as Lovers and StrangersRevisited
(Silverfish Books).
In 2008, a third revised version with two
additional stories was published by MPH, which I wrote
about in a blog about publishing in Malaysia and Singapore, that later won the 2009 Popular-The Star
Reader’s Choice Awards and was translated into French.To complement the MPH edition, I wrote a blog
series, The Story Behind the Story, about the development and the significant changes of each story that led
to their various magazine/literary journal publications—often used as writing/teaching
aids in schools, colleges, and universities. The
main character from the story “Neighbors” was featured by an expat teacher
in the New Straits Times, “Are You Mrs. Koh?”
So why revise the stories again? I’ve
always felt that Lovers and Strangers Revisited, based on its publishing track record, deserves a wider audience both
inside and outside of Malaysia/Singapore. For example, the collection is still available in French by Editions GOPE as Trois
autres Malaisie. In fact, the publisher will be exhibiting the
collection along with his other Malaysian titles at a French book fair in Kuala
Lumpur on 24 March 2024, which should translate into more sales!.
So far, thanks to rewriting those published stories, the individual stories have been
published 82 times in 12 countries (11 stories in USA and UK); taught in Malaysian
secondary school literature for six years (“Neighbors”), as well as in Canada
and USA (Ohio University); and several stories have been taught for years in various
Malaysian universities and private colleges.Film students at Ohio University found the original collection in
their library, came to Malaysia, and filmed, “Home for Hari Raya.”
Maybe because of this persistent belief
that these stories (individually and as a collection) are still relevant—they
are still being taught in Malaysia as of May 2023 and are still being published
in the USA (“The Stare” appeared in Thema, Spring 2021). As I began editing again (clarifying
details, cutting needless words or phrases, tightening the writing), I could
see significant improvements in each story.
Also, the process feels like a trip down memory
lane, both as a writer and as an expatriate living in Malaysia. “Mat Salleh,” for example, was my first published
story, a nonfiction short story, 28 January 1986 (New Straits Times) and
my first published story in the UK (My Weekly). "Teh-O in K.L." was my first published short story is USA (Aim). The other stories, all published but one, are all loosely based on my
early experiences or on my observations of kampong and modern-day life in
Malaysia. Not all the memories are good—a
failed marriage for me (“Dark Blue Threads”) and a neighbor committing
suicide (“Neighbors”); nevertheless, these stories are my Malaysianroots,
so to speak, having lived in Penang as an expatriate for twenty-one years and
taught creative writing at USM for ten years, before moving to Sarawak to grow
new roots.
The real payoff, of course, is that these
revised stories now have a chance for future publications in the US or
UK or Australia or elsewhere—the main reason I do it.Or the collection, fingers crossed, is republished to a wider
audience.Or the play that I added as a
bonus, “One Drink Too Many,” a comedy adapted from the short story, “Neighbors,”
is produced in Malaysia or Singapore. Preferably, all three!
What helps me to keep the faith in Lovers
and Strangers Revisited (and theindividual stories) is rereading the
MPH back-of-the-book reviews and other review snippets that I include while
marketing the collection to agents and other publishers:
MPH Publisher’s synopsis
and reviews from the back of the book:
In this collection of 17 stories, Robert Raymer portrays
the traditional in modernity, the unexpected in relationships both familiar and
strange, the recurring theme of race even as contemporary Malaysia finds ways
to understand its multicultural milieu.
In the title story, a selfish writer gets more than he
bargained for when two former lovers haunt him in more ways than one. In another
story, a man's loneliness turns into obsession when he shares a taxi ride with
a Malay woman. A Clark Gable lookalike is a barrister wannabe with a shocking
secret and gossipy neighbours reveal more about themselves than the man who
commits suicide. Elsewhere, expats cross the border to Had Yai to experience a
good bargain in the Thai flesh trade before going home to their wives in
America.
In this republished edition of Lovers and Strangers
Revisited, Raymer's snapshots of scenes from various walks of life provide
an insider-outsider view on love, family and culture, and urges a second look
at ourselves in the mirror of self-awareness.
Praise for Lovers and Strangers Revisited
'Raymer not only writes from his own viewpoint as a foreigner
and observer, but also delves into the minds of desperate Malay woman, a young
Indian girl, an adulterous Chinese couple, and an old Chinese man who survived
the Japanese occupation... He has an uncanny ability to hold a mirror up to the
people of his adopted country, not as a foreigner but as one of us. His
stories are full of personalities that you know, you work with them, or live
next door to them, or eavesdrop on them at the kopi tiam.'The Borneo
Post
'This account ("On Fridays") of a crammed ride
with strangers in a taxi may well stand as a metaphor of Raymer's own
experience of living among Malaysians... He imbues each of the characters in
his stories with a realistic, genuinely believable voice even as he tempers it
with the valuable perspective of an observer.' New Straits Times
'Raymer gives a lushly and rich and multi-layered rendition
of the Malaysian way of life as colored and influenced by his own experiences
from his twenty years as an expat here... These stories are some of the few
authentic portrayals of the inner workings and inner plays of the average
Malaysian's life in all of its robustness and unique cultural settings.' The
Expat
A little ego boost for sure, something all writers need now
and then.Also, it’s good to touch base,
like stretching before exercising. Awfully glad I rewrote those stories. Now that
2023 is over (having rewritten eight books—six novels and two collections of stories—in two years), I’m ready to embark on new writing projects for 2024 and beyond...
—Borneo Expat
Writer
My interviews with other Malaysian writers:
Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.
“You’re on TV!” my wife told me over the
phone, calling from a Toyota dealership where she was having her car serviced. A friend of hers had texted that she was
watching me on TV. I soon realized that it was a repeat of the Past Present Future Episode 5: Writing Natives episode
on TV Sarawak that featured Golda Mowe, author of such novels as Iban
Dream, Iban Journey and Iban Women that I had
blogged about.
After interviewing Golda a few years ago, I had been asked to take part in a documentary
about her writing life. The filming for my part was
done at my house, which made it convenient. Unfortunately, I missed the actual program
but I was glad that at least someone I knew watched it (or a at least a repeat
version of it).
I told my wife to let her friend know that I would be available for autographs.I’m
still waiting…
—Borneo Expat Writer
My other Interviews with First Novelists:
Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize. Preeta Samarasan, author of Evening is the Whole Day, finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009. Chuah Guat Eng, author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change.
Congrats to Golda
Mowe on being featured on Past Present Future Episode 5: Writing Natives,
which aired 4 August 2021 on TV
Sarawak (TVS).
Having come across
my author-to-author interview with Golda, Deborah Christopher, who studied Cinematography at Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak (UNIMAS) where I taught for a number of years, asked me if I was interested
in being interviewed for a documentary featuring Golda Mowe. Golda, from Sarawak, is the author of the
novels Iban Dream, Iban Journey and Iban Women.
Blue Lotus 15
Deborah
is the co-producer for a documentary series named Past, Present, and Future, a
project funded by TVS.Each episode highlights
different stories of Sarawak personalities who have incorporated their culture and
traditions from the past into their present (and future) careers or projects.
I
was glad to hear that Golda Mowe was being featured since she is underappreciated
and deserves a wider audience.I was impressed
by her discipline, her persistence and her willingness
to rewrite.Many Malaysian writers do
not seem to want to put in the extra work, thinking it is good enough for
Malaysia.The good ones, like Golda and
others that I have interviewed who want to attract an international audience,
know better.
Due
to the on-going pandemic, the project was delayed.Then last year the film crew nearly got
locked down in Sibu while interviewing Golda.Meanwhile, I made a list of things to do before
the filming: reread Iban Dream
andpurchase and read the other two novels in theseries; prepare for the interview by coming
up with something interesting to say; make notes, reminders of what I need to do
the week and the day before the shoot (including domestic chores—sweeping,
dusting, cleaning the living room); and more reminders for the morning of the
shoot itself (arrange mythology books on table, make sure I have handy
everything I may need—water bottle, pen and notebook, outline of my talk in
case I go blank.
After reading Golda’s
three novels, I learned a lot about Iban myths, their fears and dreams, their
omens and taboos, their customary laws (cannot refuse a visitor if he makes a
request to stay at your longhouse and cannot refuse food offered to you), the
significance of weaving patterns (and the harmful risks of trying to weave
above your skill level) and also retribution, an obligation to take avenge if
one of your relatives was killed.Also,
that the ideal matrimonial match should be between a feared headhunter and a
gifted weaver.
For
the documentary I was asked to talk about Golda, her writing, and her life
journey, which got me to thinking in terms of The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers, a book by Christopher Vogler, which I picked up at a writing conference in Maui, along with a companion
book, Myth and the Movies, Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50
Unforgettable Films by Stuart Voytilla.
Vogler, inspired by
the work of Joseph Campbell, author of Hero with a Thousand Faces, discusses the use of archetypes such as the Hero, the
Mentor, the Threshold Guardians, the Herald, the Shapeshifter (gods and
demons), the Shadow and the Trickster.Also
the Mystic Structure and Stages of the Journey:Ordinary World; Call to Adventure; Refusal of the Call; Meeting with the
Mentor; Crossing the First Threshold; Tests, Allies, Enemies; Approach to the
Innermost Cave; Ordeal; Reward (Seizing the Sword); The Road Back;
Resurrection; Return with the Elixir.
This mystic
structure can be applied to nearly every story from adventures to romance to
slapstick comedy, even to animation such as Disney’s The Lion King.
To prepare myself
for the documentary, I broke my presentation into four parts: (1) Golda’s use
of mythology; (2) her plots and themes; (3) her personal writer’s journey and how
we met (MPH workshop that I conducted in 2009); and (4) her writing in Sarawak and
publishing in Singapore.I had written a
blog about publishing books in Malaysia and Singapore.
A common theme in all
three of Golda’s novels is the hero being made a scapegoat or an outcast—you
against the world (both visible and invisible). The hero, even as a child, is often forced to
undertake the ‘hero’s journey’, like Tarzan, or Mowgli in The Jungle Book,
or Simba in The Lion King, often cast out unfairly by society.In Golda’s Iban Dream, the child
Bujang, is raised by an orangutan…destined to be a great warrior. All three novels are connected by a cursed
family line and each hero/heroine sets out to prove that they are not
cursed, to right wrongs.
Deborah and Jeremy
Emang (the producer and director), along with the rest of the crew, Shawn and
Elisha, arrived at my house for the half-day shoot.They proceeded to set up the camera and
lights and the rest of their equipment in one section of our living room, aimed
at me sitting at a round table and with several coffee
table books on mythology and lost cities, lost empires, including Homer’s The
Iliad and The Odyssey,with a nice backdrop
of collected items from my travels.
Once the filming
began, I proceeded to talk about
Golda’s personal hero’s journey as a writer and her own
mystic journey, some of which I had learned from my research from my previous
interview.
Then I spoke
about the hero’s journey within her stories and how it dates back to ancient
Greeks, which she, coincidentally talked about during her own segment.When most people think
of mythology, they often limit themselves to Greek and Roman mythology, dating back
to the Trojan War.But every culture has
their own mythology, and Golda Mowe wrote about the Iban mythology that is important
to her.She writes about what she knows,
what she has learned, and from her meticulous research to get the details of her
rich Iban heritage correct.It’s these details
that make her fantasy novels palpable.As a reader, we are caught up in their journeys, their quests, their
battles with demons and headhunters.
I continued to talk
until I heard an all too familiar jingle from an ice-cream truck.Knowing that sound equipment for the filming could
pick it up, I took a much-needed break and drink of water.We waited several minutes until the vendor made
his rounds and took away his jingle.
I picked up where I
left off and continued to say what I felt needed to be said on Golda’s
behalf.I had done my homework and was
well prepared.After the interview, Jeremy
told me that he had written a list of questions but I had answered all of them
as I spoke, so there was no need to interrupt me.He could relax, check off each
unasked question, and concentrate on the filming.
Jeremy Emang
A few weeks later, Deborah
contacted me to borrow my three Golda Mowe books for another shot (since Golda
was still in Sibu) and promptly returned the books.During the actual documentary, I appeared
four times; however, I was bleeped only once.What I said was the right word for the context (bullsh…ing). I thought they would cut it from the actual
documentary.Instead, I have my first
recorded ‘bleep’ caught on film, a badge of honor.
Although I didn’t
get a chance to meet Golda again, it was good to see her on film.Since she did all
the hard work, the research and writing her books, she deserves all the credit
for her well written books about Ibans in Sarawak.I wish her all the
best with her writing and hope she continues her hero’s journey that all
writers must undertake if they dare to dream and write and see their work published.
—Borneo Expat Writer
My other Interviews
with First Novelists:
Ivy
Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse
Prize. Preeta
Samarasan, author of Evening is the Whole Day, finalist
for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009. Chuah
Guat Eng, author of Echoes of Silence and Days of
Change.
I originally wrote this article “Farewell to a Tango Dancer” in 2003 for a farewell dinner for Anni Nordmann before she left Penang, Malaysia where I first met her, and later published a revised version for Tropical Affairs.Having learned that she had recently passed away due to cancer, I thought I would post the article as a final tribute to Anni.
Joelle, Robert, Anni
If
expats are good at one thing it’s saying goodbye because we do it so often—to expats
leaving and those staying behind.Expats
come in two types: those who come to a
country for a year or two before moving onto the next country, and those who come
to one country and stay put.Anni
Nordmann was both.She had been an expat
in eight countries—South Africa, Zimbabwe, Switzerland, Gabon, Thailand,
Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Singapore—before arriving in Penang, Malaysia where
she ended up staying for sixteen years.
After
being away from the United
States for 28 years, she’s finally returning
home.Like other
long-stayers-in-one-country expats like myself, I was wondering, how do you say
goodbye to a fellow expat whom you thought would never leave?
Like
Anni, when I came to Malaysia
20 years ago, the intention was never to stay for very long, but as years went
by, I became settled.Initially I was
awed by those long-time expats who had been here for ten or twelve years, and
thought, how do they stay that long?Don’t they miss their families and friends back home?But as the years went by, as we started our
own families here, this becomes home,
Although
I moved to Penang in 1985, Anni came in 1987 with her Swiss husband and
three-year old son, Chris.Later we
discovered that before we met, our paths had crossed several times.Anni was living in Holiday Inn, where her
husband was the general manager, and I had been to the Holiday Inn on many occasions,
attending various functions, including a Thanksgiving dinner for Americans
where she was also present.My ex-wife
and I were close to Stella, Holiday Inn’s guest relations officer, and attended
her wedding, as did Anni.In 1991, after
four years, after Anni had already left Holiday Inn, after her husband had moved
away to another hotel in another country, we finally met.
During
the filming of Indochine, starring Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Perez, which
won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the director decided to do a day
shoot instead of a night shoot for the Christmas Dinner scene, thus several male
expats had to back out as guests and tango dancers.So the casting people called me as one of the replacements.
Before the actual filming of the scene, all eight tango dancers met in Hotel Equatorial with the film’s choreographer.In walked Anni, a classy looking American who played polo and taught horseback riding.Anni, however, was not fated to be my dancing partner.Instead it was her good friend Joelle Saint-Arnoult, another longtime expat from France. For one week we learned how to dance and turn and dip to perfection.
Our Christmas Dinner scene in the old Crag Hotel atop Penang Hill took four days to shoot.Elegantly dressed in period outfits from the 1930s, Anni sat directly across from me, so we had plenty of time to get to know one another.A few weeks later, Anni, Joelle and I were invited to take part in the racing boat scene in Parit, Perak.
with Lind Dan Pham
After Indochine,
all three of us were extras in Beyond Rangoon—also set in Penang—directed
by John Boorman, starring Patricia Arquette and Francis McDormand, and Paradise
Road, directed by Bruce Beresford, starring Glenn Close and Cate Blanchett.In Beyond Rangoon, Anni and I worked a
few days in wardrobe when they needed extra help to deal with 2000 extras, where
we gained a whole new perspective into movie making.
In 1992,
Anni, Joelle and I were asked by Angela Clark another tango dancer from Indochine, to help revive Penang Players after a twelve years hiatus.Our first play was Admirable Crichton
where Joelle and Anni had small acting parts.Anni’s big part was sound effects, and I was stage manager.Our behind-the-scenes roles continued for
several productions including, Gosforth’s Fete, Between Mouthfuls, The
Mousetrap, and Dick Whittington and Wonder Cat.Joelle played the Wonder Cat and Anni’s son
Chris, then age 10, played Dick Whittington.
During this time, Anni and I shared other adventures, too.She helped to dress me up as Santa Claus for St. Christopher’s School, where her son Chris was attending.Thanks to Indochine, we became models for Hotel Equatorial, City Bayview, and Bacchus, a French restaurant owned by Joelle and her husband.We were then hired to dress up as Colonial Officers and their spouses at the E & O Hotel for 200 French Lotto winners.
For the
Penang Heritage Trust’s Twenties Revival at the former Runnymede Hotel, we were
asked to reprise our roles as tango dancers from Indochine and put on a
performance.By then, the eight tango
dancers in Penang had dwindled to five.
Anni and
I shared a penchant for visiting places where we didn’t belong, like the
remnants of a house in Batu Ferringhi where another long-term expat-cum hermit
named Bill McVeigh was still living out the remainder of his life before he
passed away.We snuck into several abandoned
bungalows, including one where we were chased by bats, and another time, I tore
my shirt slipping through a hole in a fence.
There
were sad moments too, like giving blood to a fellow Penang Player who later
died of cancer; although he was from Penang, he was a long-term expat in France.Anni, at her own personal risk, once helped
another expat flee Penang from an abusive husband.
In the
last five years, Anni devoted herself to “The Farm” at Lone Pine Hotel, where
she taught horseback riding, resurfacing now and then to do the sound for yet
another Penang Players’ production.Meanwhile I settled to a life teaching creative writing at USM, went
through a divorce, and eventually met someone wonderful from Sarawak
and remarried.
While I concentrated on teaching and my own writing, Anni offered to read an early draft of my
novel and gave helpful feedback.Over
the years she had edited two more of my novels and some short stories.Extremely supportive of my writing, she,
Joelle and others from Penang Players volunteered to launch my collection of
Malaysian-set short stories, Lovers and Strangers.Later they did again for the revised version,
Lovers and Strangers Revisited.By then Anni had left, although I
acknowledged her in the book.
When Joelle
first told me that Anni was leaving Penang, I contacted her and we quickly caught
up with each other’s lives, reminiscing about all the adventures we had shared
in Penang, as well as airing each other’s concerns about her returning to the
US and her future life as a former expat whose heart will always be in Malaysia
where she had spent a third of her life.When I was going through a difficult custody battle for my son, she gave
me the timely advice to “keep your head high”.I know she will be do the same no matter what happens in the US where
many fellow Americans have never traveled out of the US, other than weekend
trips to Mexico or Canada, and have no desire to do so.
Like
many other short- and long-term expats in Penang, as well as hordes of local
friends, especially those in Penang Players or from The Lone Pine—we will miss
Anni, particularly Joelle and I, who will remain behind in Penang as the last
two tango dancers.
*Later, in 2006, I left
Penang for Sarawak on the island of Borneo in East Malaysia where I still reside as an expat. Joelle remains in Penang.
My short story “The Stare” was published in Thema (Spring
2021) in the US.The story was first
published in New Straits Times in Malaysia back in 1986.That’s 35 years ago, so I guess it has a
timeless quality about it. I got the
idea after visiting an old Malay cemetery and wrote about it in Story Behind the Story. This is the fifth short story published in Thema, four from the Lovers and Strangers Revisited collection.
After filming at the chapel at the
Carmelite Monastery (see Part I), both the school assembly and class photo scenes at St. Joseph Secondary School were switched to Sunday, the
final day of filming.All the
extras—Garret-another Brother, Leslie-the photographer, and about three dozen Form Five students from St. Joseph—were brought it for the shots.
There was some drama in the school assembly
when the Taib and Annuar characters arrived late and Annuar collided with
Brother Charles who was wielding his cane.My opening lines addressing the school assembly went well, just needed
to work on the cadence.The tiles,
however, were slippery from the early morning rain for my dress shoes, so I had
to be careful while walking and then climbing onto the platform (they had to
remove the makeshift steps which were even more precarious).
Jocelyn would assist me coming down, which
I didn’t mind. One take, I even had two
ladies helping me, one for each hand.
Wouldn’t look good if I fell since they didn’t have a spare
cassock. What did fall was the top
portion of an old gramophone that was being wound up to play the school
rally. The two previous takes went fine,
but then the whole top portion of the gramophone dropped off.
I made the announcement, put my
hand on my heart, as did all of the students, and we sang the school rally.I had been rehearsing all week and had it
memorized, but I kept screwing up the lines and then picking it up later and
screwing up again, although no retakes were done for my sake, which I found…well,
surprising and relieving.Then I got an
idea.I asked Alester, our director, to
ask all of the students to put some school spirit into the song, since they all
knew the song by heart, and to sing loudly, too, which I hoped would drown me
out (and cover my mistakes).It worked!
By the time the class photo sequence was
ready to begin, the sun was directly above our heads and we were all melting.Although I acted cool, the bald spot in the
back of my head could feel the heat.
This was where the film ends, just as the photographer called out, “One, two, three…” He had no flash in his camera, but in the film, it flashed, and the class photo morphed into the actual class photo with Taib Mahmud taken in 1955.
Taib's Class Photo 1955
I thought we
were done, but we were called in for an ADR—Additional Dialogue Replacement—to
dub in lines that weren’t clear on the film for a variety of reasons, some out
of our control like that passing ambulance.I immediately dreaded redoing the school rally, something I was still
singing inside my head, and desperately wanted out!Then I figured, since they were no longer
filming, I could read from the script, so no problem.No, the school rally was fine and the
close-ups on me were at the beginning before I had time to mess up.
We arrived at Momentum Studio Thursday
evening.Since I had the longest drive
home, and it was a school night and I had to be up at 5:15 a.m. the following
morning, they let me go first.
“Are you ready?” asked Amos as he led me to
the sound room.
“When have I ever not been ready?” I
replied jokingly.
My wife would’ve laughed at that.“Now what?” she would say, after another
delay whenever we were rushing anywhere.
On the monitor was me from the church
scene, kneeling in my pew.I needed to
redo the prayers.Bernie keyed me in
with a series of three beats.On the
fourth non-existent beat I would begin.It was weird speaking to myself, trying to match the words with the lips
that were moving in front of me.All I
had to do was say my prayer a couple of times and then I silently prayed it
would be over before they changed their minds about redoing that song.
One month to the day of my audition to play
Brother Patrick I happened to be in Sibu when I heard that Sarawak TV would be
airing our film that evening; however, they weren’t sure of the time, anywhere
from 7:30-9:30.The hotel didn’t carry
that channel, but I was told it could be watched live online.
We watched the news at 7:30, and kept
glancing at the time as the program, a tribute to Taib Mahmud dragged on…a
variety show of speeches, singing and dancing that culminated with the presentation
of our film by Pixbugs Studio—his special birthday present—at 10 pm!By then both of our boys were sound
asleep.Nevertheless, my wife and I
watched the program on her phone in bed.Luckily, it didn’t put us to sleep.
What really jolted me awake was the first
shot of me—a closeup of the balding spot on the back of my head as I stood on
the podium about to address the school assembly.It was not a good look.Shocking to say the least since I never see
that particular angle when I look at myself in the mirror, nor do I want to see
it, let alone millions of strangers.Other than that, the film was nicely done,
shot in black and white in a nostalgic style befitting Malaysia in the
mid-50’s.For Malaysians, think P.
Ramlee.
“You look weird,” one of them said.So much for making a good impression.
An astute Catholic friend, other than
pointing out the bald spot, noted that the sign of the cross before the Second
Vatican Council (1962-1965) was:In the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (not Holy Spirit as I had
said.)Oh well, for me it was still a
wrap…in the can…and launched onto TV land and into the realm of Social Media throughout the world…and
into infinity and beyond...
Next time, I just pray I don’t have to sing
that school rally again and maybe they could cover up that bald spot for
me.A nice stylish hat would do.