The guest of honour was YB Dato' Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Minster of Women, Family and Community Development, who also happens to be the MP for Lembah Pantai (the constituency which includes Bangsar). She turned up a fashionable one hour late, as Ministers are always wont to do. For me the time was well spent, though, chatting to Saras, Dina, Adam, MPH's Dato Ng and others, and getting a Starbucks caffeine fix to propel me through the morning.
Here is Shahrizat making a grand entrance. The others are (left to right) Professor Lim Chee Seng, Raman, Tunku Halim with his back to the camera, Datuk Shanmugalingam (with the beard) and (in the corner) Dato' Ng Tieh Chuan of MPH.
Professor Lim introduced the event, and then Ronald Quay Ong Guan (above) the President of Bangsar Baru Business Council made a speech ... not only pointing out that Bangsar is a great venue for the festival but also asking for a community library for the area.Ronald is the proprietor of the pub Ronnie Q's - the sporting pub where all my rugger bugger friends hang out on match nights. Now it's going to be transformed into a venue for Literature!
Dato' Seri Shahrizat's speech was nicely delivered and natural. It seems that she, Raman and Prof. Lim were all students at Universiti Malaya's Fifth College, at the same time. She also talked about the intellectual depth of Bangsar residents (haha!) which made the area an ideal one a litfest.
Professor Lim then read some favourite poetry ... and what a nice thing to have happen midweek just outside the supermarket! We had a sonnet by Petrach in Italian, Shakespeare's Sonnets 18 and 130, a Chinese student read poems by Li Po and Su Shi. Prof. Lim added a little John Donne, Tagore and Usman Awang much to the bemusement of pass-by shoppers, and then it was time to eat.
The lovely food was catered by the Hilton, but I was so busy gossiping to a whole range of people that I didn't eat much and went home hungry afterwards. Above, Raman with Eoin Duggan, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Ireland.I'm glad Raman and Prof. Lim decided to use Bangsar as a venue (which I suggested to them both way back - common sense, innit?). The venues there should be more relaxed and informal than in some impersonal ballroom of some stuffy hotel, and dropping out to have a nice coffee or meal and gossip will be easy too. I'm glad too that the dull academic part of the festival has been dropped and there is no utterly confusing pricing structure this time.
In fact I'm looking forward to the festival. Have you registered yet? Get in before March 15th to get an Early Bird discount.
There are incidentally much better pics on Raman's site. Watch the slideshow and see how many faces you can name.
Oh and yes, here's the flier to pass on and stick on your blogs. Doesn't seem to be on Raman's site yet.
16 comments:
Quite sad I didn't get to attend. And I haven't registered yet. But I will, as a writer. Altho a failed writer. That still counts, doesn't it?
Yeah, what Chet said. Raman will give us a failed writer discount still, right?
Wish I was there too. :(
P.S. The new poster I've designed for the 2nd MPH Breakfast Club for LitBloggers is now up on my page. Everyone, feel free to grab it and redistribute...
Maybe this round we'll have even more people with a bit of a headstart. :)
Wei, Kenny Mah - you not failed writer, lah.
failed writers should be free!!! anyway it's cheap at the mo. with the early bird discount
thanks for your great poster designs kenny
you wouldn't like to do my next readings one would you? (for next month)
the irish dude's cute :D
Dying for you to ask, Sharon! Consider it done. You just need to give me the list of readers. And I know someone who'd love to read too... *winks, winks*
:P
was thinking of asking him too, kenny! ;-D. dropped by your blog and was enjoying your writing. will confirm the other names with you later on. i tend to finalise the list only a week before because there always people who can't make it at the last moment ...
Ouch! :P
The week-before-schedule makes sense the way you explain it. I'll just have to come up with a general design and plug the names in when they are confirmed. There's always six, right?
Is there a reason why the Lit Fest is held on three consecutive working days? If there is low response that could be a reason.
With the hectic work schedule I have now, I cannot take 3 days off despite my great interest in attending.
Essentially those who can afford to attend are busy working in jobs which do not give them the time or liberty to attend. Don't get me wrong, I love my job.
Animah
Clever heading, Sharon!
thanks kenny - yes always six and the same framework could be used over successive months. will try to get names to you earlier
animah - i know, it's nuts, isn't it?
i noticed in the flier that the date has been expanded now to the saturday (though nothing on the website refelcts this) but how much is going on on the saturday, heaven knows.
amir - thanks. it's such a clumsy acronymn, isn't it?
Sharon,
Will do! :)
Animah,
I was thinking the same thing. A couple of other litbloggers had already told me they were interested but wouldn't be able to attend as they couldn't skive off work for three straight days... :P
...wait, it ends on the 1st?!
See, the problem with me is that I have to take leave from work AND hop on a plane to KL to attend this. I don't exactly have the luxury of extending my stay. :(
gette - all i can say is i noticed that the date had suddenly changed on the flier. before it was unitl 30th march. now it says 1st april. there is no information about what events are on what day for how long.
your guess is as good as mine, but shall call silverefish monday to see if i can get some clarification.
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