Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Kam Karim Konundrum

Kam Raslan's much awaited first novel Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato’ Hamid Adventures is due out next month. Chet got the first pic of the book cover, while Antares interviews the author on Kakiseni.

Kam mentions in the interview that he is often mistaken for his two older brothers, Johan who is the chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Malaysia, and Karim, who is also a successful journalist and fiction writer:
All three of us look quite similar, so I’m constantly being mistaken for one or the other. If somebody says they’ve read one of my articles in the paper, I’d wait to see if they liked it. If they did, then I’d take all the credit -- but, if they didn’t, then I’d say: “I think you’ve mistaken me for my brother.” Sometimes I don’t bother to correct them at all, because it might embarrass them. On one occasion, I happened to be standing next to a notable Tan Sri, who told me that he had decided to award his company’s business to me. I really didn’t know what to say. Unless he wanted me to wash his cars, I really couldn’t have been much use to him. I think I shouted “Fire!” and ran away.
One of the organisers of the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival was totally confused when I mentioned Kam in an e-mail and wouldn't believe that Kam wasn't Karim until I sent photographic evidence that there were indeed two author brothers with very similar names!

Okay, now the quiz question for you is which is which?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd say that's Kam on the right. Not that I really know either of them, but Kam was the one doing the reading at Night of the Living Text, and the guy on the right looks more like him.

Argus Lou said...

Left is Karim and right is a standee of Kam. Right or not? I mean correct or not? Heh heh.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Kam. WooHoo. As for the pic: that's easy. Kam only drinks Port.

Anonymous said...

Good on Kam! He's not the only expectant parent this season. I'm pretty excited that my book, TANAH TUJUH, is finally going to see the light of day at 2:30PM on March 29th @ Alexis Bistro. A special 20-minute documentary will be screened (if arrangements go according to plan ;-) and here's a sneak preview of the cover:
http://thumbsnap.com/v/OI7ZTuEx.jpg

Anonymous said...

Antares, Congrats! What a month - Dina, Kam, you. Wow I am surrounded by such creativity and gifted friends. So Sharon, when's your book coming out?

Lydia Teh said...

Kam is the dishevelled artistic type. Congrats to the old boy.

Chet said...

A friend of mine told me she was in the PWC office one day when she saw Kam's brother, and called out to him, "Hello, Karim." The brother came back and held out his hand to introduce himself, "Hello, I'm Johan."

Hahaha ...

bibliobibuli said...

yeah, you guys weren't fooled at all

antares - congrats. am really looking forward to buying your book and getting you to sign it. and must feature you and it here soon as normal blogging is resumed

chet - that's so funny!