What's New
Sakshi
October 24, 2023
I have been in a state of ‘emotional unwell-being’ for seven years. There, I’ve said it. Why? Well, after my father died, I believed that if I reached out with love to ‘good friends’, counsellors, suitors, and relatives, there could be pockets of joy to offset my grief and loneliness, thereby maintaining my emotional well-being. Instead, I received repeated metaphorical slaps in the face. It’s quite something to observe them profess to want to heal people and publicly pontificate about compassion, empathy, kindness, gratitude and, wait for it, meditation and mindfulness, all the while being stunned by their need to…
The Creative Industry Needs to Look at Things Differently Post Budget 2022
November 03, 2021
On 29 October 2021, the Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz tabled Budget 2022 in the Malaysian parliament. RM50 million has been allocated for the arts and culture industry. This comes after a year and a half after the entire industry came to an absolute standstill. With all the complaints, quibbles and arguments that are being put forward, there is one that hasn’t been analysed until now: things may not be as hopeless as it is made out. It starts with the basic premise that we already have frameworks in place to help artistes thrive, but none…
Chaos of Whole Books
May 19, 2021
Is it possible to read several books at once? Aneeta Sundararaj finds out. When I was a child, my cousin used to boast that he could read four storybooks at a time. As an adult, when he invested in an e-Reader, he continued to boast that he could keep several books ‘open’ at a time. More than that, he could quote from said books and command his ‘audience’ (mainly us cousins when we were children) with recitations of texts. I, on the other hand, was (still am) a painfully slow reader. As a child, I struggled to finish…
Writing for You? Or for Me?
June 09, 2021
Writing for You? Or for Me? ‘You must always write with your reader in mind.’ This was one of the first pieces of advice that I received when I began my writing career. Honestly, I found this extremely hard to do because more often than not, I couldn’t picture my ideal reader. Slowly, this advice changed to ‘Write for yourself.’ While that seemed easier, it didn’t necessarily fulfil the reality of the situation, meaning, writing for myself didn’t translate into sales of whatever I wrote. As time went on, though, there were a few things I understood which made writing…
One Book That Changed My Writing Life
November 21, 2020
My latest novel, The Age of Smiling Secrets was shortlisted for two categories in the Book Award 2020 organised by the National Library of Malaysia. When I reflected on the journey that this book has taken, I acknowledged the enormous influence of one of my all-time favourite books, Joseph Anton: A Memoir (ISBN 9780224093972 - hardcover) by Salman Rushdie. Written in the third person, the memoir is an account of Rushdie’s life during the fatwa that was issued as a reaction to criticism and a widespread controversy over his novel The Satanic Verses (1988). Rushdie used "Joseph Anton" as a…
A Lasting Effect
November 20, 2020
Members of Readers Club of Manav Rachna International School Sector-46, Gurugram Recently, I accepted an invitation to speak to members of a Readers Club at a school. The topic I was given was to explain the importance of reading and a book that had an impact on me. It seemed easy enough until I found it difficult. In the end, I decided to put myself in these students’ shoes, which meant going back in time and trying to figure out the novel I’d read in school that had had a huge impact on my life. The novel I eventually chose…
Library of Stories - Interview with Maizan Ismail (9 November 2020)
November 09, 2020
A few months ago, I received an email informing me about an award called the Book Award 2020 organised by the National Library of Malaysia. Within the text of the email was an invitation to submit a publication of my choice to be considered for the award. I thought it was a hoax and wrote back to ask if this was really true. Lo and behold, it was! So began the process of submitting The Age of Smiling Secrets for consideration by the experts. I was very grateful for the support from family, friends, the readers of this webiste and…
A Secret Longing - Interview with Marguerite Richards (12 July 2020)
July 12, 2020
A few weeks ago, I received a message from a friend about the publication of a new book called The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human. I found this title intriguing and went about looking for more information about both the book and its author. Duly fascinated, I made a request via my friend about whether or not the author was open to being interviewed. She was. So, without further ado, I allow me to share, in her own words, the story of The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human and its author, Marguerite Richards. Aneeta: Marguerite, thank you for agreeing to…
Quizzical Stories - Interview with Phanindra Ivatury (12 June 2020)
June 13, 2020
When I was still contributing feature articles to the New Straits Times, one of the most curious assignments I had was to work on a story about a quiz master. I never forgot this story for a few reasons. One, a quiz master? What on earth was that? Two, the gentleman in question had a unique name (although I suspect that like most Indian names, it's probably not unique in his hometown) - Phanindra. Three, Phanindra turned out to be one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever interviewed - you could practically feel the energy bouncing off him. Four…
Karma, Psychiatrists and the Storyteller - Interview with VJ Singam (18 March 2020)
March 18, 2020
"In my books, I try to bring my settings to life by giving minute descriptions of the buildings, the way of life of these ancient peoples, their food, their farming practices as described by the archaeologists and scholars who studied them. This is how it works sometimes in science fiction and most of the time in historical fiction. Writers create (or recreate) the universe in which their story is to unfold," - VJ Singam, author of 'Disorientation'. I came across Uma's first published work in 1998. And this was in Alor Setar. At the time, I had completed university and…
The Wedding Estate
January 22, 2020
Aneeta Sundararaj is fascinated by the removal of celebrities' wedding photos because of venue. Is this likely to happen in Malaysia? One of the things that caught my attention early last month was a story about the wedding photos of the Hollywood couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds being removed from websites. Why had those photos caused such offence? The answer was because the wedding had taken place at a US plantation which was ‘a site that holds deep traumatic historical meaning for the African American community’. (1) I set about investigating this story a little more and found an…
Magical Story Energy - Interview with Mbeke Waseme (16 January 2020)
January 16, 2020
Mbeke and I first met a year and a half ago during a celebration hosted by 7C Life RealiZation Centre. A few months later, during the full moon, we travelled together to a resort in Sepang to take part in a session called 'Gratitude of Life' where we immersed ourselves in seawater. The purpose of this session was to express our gratitude to Mother Ganga and set our intentions for a successful and happy life. It is said that during the full moon's heightened gravitational pull, the power of our intentions increases which allows them to be manifested quickly. During…
In the Name of the Father? Maybe Not.
February 29, 2020
Although the concurrent legal jurisdictions of Syariah Law and the Civil Law is unique to Malaysia, they continue to cause problems and there is a growing air of pessimism all round. In July 2018, soon after the manuscript for my novel, The Age of Smiling Secrets, went to print, I wrote a story about the prevailing position of the law in Malaysia where both parents must consent to the conversion of a child to Islam. It stemmed from newspaper articles about a high-profile case involving the unilateral conversion of a child to Islam and the jurisdiction of the courts in…
Miracles Made
December 22, 2019
A story about a Malaysian author, a locally-published book and a miracle in a faraway place a few days before Christmas. There is no winter to speak of in tropical Malaysia, but on 18 December 2019, all that came to mind was that it was a bleak midwinter. In the last few weeks, I'd managed health issues of dear ones, the shocking death of a friend too young to die, assignments to submit, deadlines to meet, the flu, severe allergies to the point of developing painful welts all over and the stress of travel. Certainly, it was a lesson in…
Contact and Connection. And Empathy?
August 15, 2019
[Note: This story was first published in CLARITY (15 August 2019). It is published here with permission.] The scene is familiar: It’s Sunday evening and a family of four come into a restaurant for dinner. The waitress shows them to a table and before they even sit down, all four of them – father, mother, son and daughter – place their phones on the table. Orders are placed and while waiting for the food to arrive, they are glued to their phones. Maybe, there’ll be some respite when the food arrives. Maybe, they’ll put away their phones for a while.…
Satirical Satin - Interview with Nur Farella (15 June 2019)
June 17, 2019
Introduction: I met Farella a few years ago. I was assigned to a story by the papers and went to meet this pretty young lass. I was fascinated by her gumption - she had a dream, a desire and she made it all happen. Here, in her own words, she tells her story. *** Aneeta: Let’s start with a little about you. Please tell me where were you born? Where did you grow up and what do you do for a living? Farella: Thank you for the introduction question Miss Aneeta. I was born at Samuel Clinic, Kuala Lumpur and…
In the Shade of a Mango Tree - Interview with Dato’ Dr. Andrew Mohanraj (15 January 2019)
January 13, 2019
Dato' Dr. Andrew Mohanraj © Aneeta Sundararaj “Same old. Same old. 2004 has been so boring.” These were the words my friend said on Christmas Eve. Neither of us was aware that our belief that the year would end on a dull note was premature. On Boxing Day, I was at home in Alor Setar. I was busy caring for my puppy who was recuperating from an operation. I’d shortened her leash by twirling it around one leg of our dining table so that she would remain in one spot. Suddenly, the glasses in our cabinets rattled and the dining…
Industry 4.Perfection
January 14, 2018
In the last quarter of 2017, I had to learn something new fast and write about it – Industry 4.0. Wikipedia says that, essentially, ‘it’s the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies’. Yes. At first glance, it all sounds like gobbledygook. As I worked on the article, though, I began to wonder how this trend would affect the publishing industry. Would we writers and storytellers respond favourably to it? How could we automate the writing process? Could robots write our stories for us? What if they started writing their own stories? What would they say about…
Why I Prefer Print to E-book/Electronic
February 15, 2018
With the advent of Industry 4.0, there are no limits to the options available for consumers. Is this a good thing, though? Especially for writers and readers? Is there still a need for books, journals, newspapers and magazines? The stories below show that we still need physical reading material to make life worth living. Disaster, luxury and skills Here’s what happened when I started writing for the papers. Delighted to see my words in print, I cut that page out and glued it into a scrapbook. As the number of my published articles increased, so did the space in this…
The Demystification of Stephen by Amina Maikori
September 15, 2016
Title: The Demystification of StephenAuthor: Amina MaikoriFile Size: 1468 KBPrint Length: 72 pagesSimultaneous Device Usage: UnlimitedPublisher: BookBaby; 1 edition (March 20, 2016)Publication Date: March 20, 2016Language: EnglishASIN: B01D8WF4IY Amina Maikori's eBook, 'The Demystification of Stephen' is quite the cute eBook. As the blurb suggests, the story is about a chance meeting that one Stephen Duru has with three women. As the story unfolds, the consequences of each of these encounters is told. The three women believe that by meeting Stephen, their dreams can come true. He is, after all, the 'quintessential 21st century gentlemen: well connected, rich and charming to…
Beyond Satisfaction - Interview with Breanne Dyck (10 November 2016)
November 10, 2016
Breanne Dyck is the founder of MNIB Consulting and helps online training businesses scale their impact, their team and their revenue. Her strategies help to create transformational learning experiences that customers can't stop talking about. Breanne regularly consults on flagship products and programs, CreativeLive courses, live events and workshops for thought-leaders such as bestselling authors Chris Guillebeau, Tara Gentile and Natalie Sisson. As a member of her book launch team, I interviewed her about her upcoming book and advice for writers to create an online course. Rohi: How much time did it take you to write the first edition of…
15 Habits of Writers Who Are Mentally Tough
July 05, 2016
15 Habits of Writers Who Are Mentally Tough by Aneeta Sundararaj Earlier this year, I read an article by Travis Bradberry (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248234) where he sets out 15 habits that mentally tough people should have. I analysed the same 15 habits, but applied them to the writing/publishing industry. Here’s what I came up with: They’re emotionally intelligent From what I understand, EQ is a person’s ability to accurately identify his emotions. This includes being aware of, controlling and expressing those emotions. In ‘Why the best writers have the most Emotional Intelligence’ (http://www.publicationcoach.com/emotional-intelligence/) the two points that jumped out at me were…
Orwell, Bell and the English Language
April 18, 2016
Orwell, Bell and the English Language When I started writing many, many years ago, a friend referred me to 2 resources. One was an essay by George Orwell called ‘Politics and the English Language’. I studied the essay, summarised the points and have used the teachings ever since. The other was a book called ‘Plot and Structure’ by James Scott Bell. I’d like to share what I learnt below. From George Orwell’s essay: [Words like ‘democracy’] are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer…
Semantics of Democracy
April 22, 2016
Semantics of Democracy In the wake of the dramatic political events in the Middle East in February 2011, there are many who wonder if some countries there will now embrace democracy. Indeed, since the revolution in Egypt, there is analysis of how fast its citizens were able to start the revolution to oust the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Also, there has been debate about the blueprint for democracy that Egypt will now adopt. From a writer’s perspective, however, one question remains strangely unanswered: what, actually, does the word ‘democracy’ mean? Let’s start with the events in Cairo, Egypt, by referring…