The People's Poet

As a writer, as an artist, I feel that my job is to speak the truth of what went on in each decade – be it colonisation, racial tension or poverty. ... It’s only in recent years that I have made a concentrated effort to communicate the ideas with equal force as the language used.

Venerable old man of Malaysian letters, A. Samad Said, is interviewed in today's Starmag by Priya Kulasagaran. Among other things he talks about his desire to explore other art forms and to connect with artists of a younger generation.

This, I think, is very well said :

More and more young people are acknowledging their power to go out and map their own world instead of just sitting back and letting their elders dictate their lives. ... If we allow them space to express themselves, the process can be a very constructive one for all. If you continue clamping down on them, they will just find new platforms for expression.

Great Writing Tips no. 428 - Remember to Eat!

I met my young friend Siege, aka Carlos Malvar, when I attended the British Council's Animating Literature conference in Manila a couple of year's back and he made an impression as a performance poet and really nice guy. Now he is the author of two best selling young adult novels, and he's started a rather good blog called Not So Unreal.

I really like what he wrote about writing and eating! :

Tip to all budding writers out there. Before getting elbow deep into your work, make sure you’re well fed. Never face the blank page on an empty stomach. Hunger pangs are distractions. You don’t want to think about what you’re going to eat while you’re figuring out how to express your character’s fears in 50 words or so using graphic descriptions and gothic settings. Writing is hard work. You’ll get hungry. Eat, eat, eat.

Also, do you know that thinking burns calories? Usually, I watch what I eat. I came from a family cursed with the fat genes on my dad’s side, and with the short genes on my mom’s side… which makes me a hobbit, especially now that I have curly hair, and furry feet. Anyway, I watch what I eat because I tend to get fat more than the usual person, and usually, I try to squeeze in some jogging in my moderately busy lifestyle of watching videos. BUT, when I’m writing intensively, I let myself loose and basically feast on junk food, loads of carbs, heaps and heaps of sugar (via coffee, iced tea, Coke), and whatever I can munch on. It’s OK, I’m writing. I’m running full speed on my mental threadmill.

When you’re writing, you will get very very hungry. This is because you will experience bending time while writing. While you agonize over three paragraphs where nothing happens in your “narrative time” except for one of your characters making himself some coffee, an entire hour may have elapsed in real time. A single page of manuscript may detail nothing but a fleeting moment in your narrative timeline, and you didn’t notice it, but four real time hours have gone by!!! That’s what it’s like to be a writer.

Siege was one of the performance poets invited to take part in the British Council and Apples and Snakes' Speechless poetry project last year, along with others including our own Priya K and Singaporean Pooja Nansi, and under the tutelage of Jacob Sam-la Rose and Malika Booker.

Siege's more personal blog is here. Yeah, he's nuts. So?

Maybe if we all shout loud enough he will be forced to come over to Malaysia and read some of his work for us.

An Evening with Preeta Samarasan

On Friday night MPH held an event called an Evening with Preeta Samarasan at Bottles and Bottles in the Gardens. Yours truly did the introducing and a whole bunch of folks read their work : Kathleen Choo, Reza Rosli, Priya K, MK Ajay reading poetry; Lee Su Kim reading from A Nyonya in Texas; and Ezra Zaid, reading a special message to us from Khaled Al Khamissi and an extract from Al Khamissi's Taxi which Ezra recent published here.


But it was the lady herself we were celebrating and waiting to hear. She read from Chapter 5 this time about the return of Paathi the grandmother, who died under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom ... and reading those lines that make us gasp at their sheer audacity.

The wine (a fruity, smooth Chilean - good enough to marry) was excellent, so thank you Bottles and Bottles for that. And thanks to MPH - especially Eric Forbes and Janet Tay, for organising the event and providing the food.

Adam Lee took some terrific photos of the evening and I refer you to his page on Facebook. I couldn't resisit getting him to take this shot of Su Kim's dinky embroidered nyonya slippers. The lady gets my award for literary sartorial elegance.

Sufian's Mission

Sufian Abas is Reads Monthly's pin-up boy in Starmag today. Daphne Lee sums him up thusly :

... a sulky young man who smells like freshly-pressed laundry.* He takes stunning photographs ... but (it is said) they are nothing compared to his beautiful, detailed work in cross-stitch. ... He tap dances. He enjoys skinny-dipping. And climbing trees. He loves horses, especially unicorns. He dislikes children, but thinks they might be delicious curried, or roasted and served with carrots and potatoes. Sufian claims that he was once nearly murdered by a witch.

But most importantly :

Sufian Abas is on a mission to save Malay fiction by producing works that people would actually want to read.

written in :

... the sort of Malay you hear on the street ... the Malay people actually use and understand ...

And he's conscious of filling a gap (presently almost uninhabited!) between what he calls the heavy literary prose and and the sort of trash you find in Malay romance novels. He also, and I think this is a particularly interesting point, urges non-Malay writers to write to Malay because they would bring something different to the language.

Anyway Daphne likes Sufian's book ... better than two other local collections she didn't think as good as they were cracked up to be on the blogs. (Blog?) Ahem. Never mind. We fought it out at the Food Foundry yesterday in between mouthfuls of toast and scrambled eggs . Chaque'un à son goût ... in short story collections as in breakfast dishes.

Priya K. reviews Sufian's book and finds the stories :

... snappy and heartbreaking ... the writing style is deceptively simple, opting for everyday language and pop culture references. The result is street poetry, with classic lines such as “dengan air mata berlenagan dan berkilauan seperti bebola disko” (with tears shining like disco balls). ... Philosophic pulp fiction, if I may venture to coin a term.

My review of Nikita Lalwani's Gifted is in Starmag today though with a Borders voucher when Kinokuniya was kind enough to give me the copy of the book which is a bit embarrassing. But never mind ... there is a 30% discount voucher for selected titles from Kino to clip out.**

Ted reviews Hitomi Kanehara's Auto Fiction (and reminds me that I still want to buy her Snakes and Earrings) and Martin Spice John Le Carre's Mission Song.

There's news too of bookstore events in April including of a free creative writing workshop to be run by Kam Raslan at MPH.

(*Hmm, just how close did Daphne get?)
(** There's a strange and sad postscript I want to stick at the end of my original post on the book.)

Wena's Wet Weekend

Then, after lunch and a quick rush round the supermarket to get survival rations for the afternoon with Chet's help, dashed over to Seksan's and the heaven's opened.

I was drenched even before I had unpacked the car, and the inclement weather didn't let up the whole afternoon. (What is happening to the weather? It doesn't seem like the monsoon ever went away?) But fortunately our loyal audience turned up in decent numbers. (Thank you!)

Wena Poon read a passage from her story The Shooting Ranch, my favourite story from Lions in Winter. Again, it was beautifully dramatised, and really showed how much she gets into the skin of her characters to write about them. (Not all authors - even some very big name ones - are good readers of their own work!)

Wena sadly had to rush off early as she had another appearance at Borders. I'm so glad she came, but sorry we couldn't have arranged better weather for her.

Animah Kosai (above right) dragged friends Dina Zaman (above left) ...

... and actor Na'a Murad (here getting his photo taken by a member of the press) along to read a couple of scenes from a new play she's working on called 100 Stones, which featured a woman married to a guy who has just become an elected representative. He doesn't seem to be too interested in sex, and there she is, desperately frustrated trying to seduce him with every trick in the book including sexy negligees.

It was interesting talking to Na'a in the break who reckons that the changed political landscape and the greater openness and willingness to engage in issues that has followed, is making it easier for artists of all kinds, but especially playwrights. It's early days yet ... but really, let's hope he's right.

I've been looking forward to Sufian Abas' first book for a very long time ... ever since we both got out first short stories published in Silverfish New Writing 1, in fact. Kasut Biru Robina is a collection of short shorts, some short short shorts just a few lines long. Bite size and snackable.

Sufian read a piece called Malam Mailakat Tidur (The Night the Angels Slept), and modest chap that he is, was going to end there but we encored him back for a second piece - Kisah Cinta (Love Story), a very amusing little tale about the fickleness of women.

Priya K. made an appeal for funds for the forthcoming Malaysian-UK exchange project, and illustrator Shahril Nizam brought some of his pictures along to be auctioned. The bidding is still ongoing and I'll post more about this later.

The break was extra long because the rain overhead was nosiy, but no-one seemed to mind too much as they were busy partying, networking, selling books ...

Ted Mahsun read a story, Pak Sudin's Bicycle I'd read on an e-group earlier and liked very much. He read it for the first time at Kata Suara the other week and had been surprised at how well it had gone down with the audience. Ted's writing is warm and whimsical, and it's really nice to see him developing as a writer. (He has a review of the new Stephen King book in the Star today, by the way.)

George Wielgus, poet, performer and writer describes himself as :

... a refugee from the wastelands of suburban England.

Slipping into the persona of her alter-ego, Mighty Jah-J, he gave us some hard-hitting poems, including Liberation and Death No. 1, which left us in little doubt why he had won the last KL Poetry Slam.

He was also selling his recently self-published limited edition zine for the price of a teh tarik (cup of "pulled tea"). You can read his poem Inside-Outsiders here.

We ended with a short tribute to Lloyd Fernando who passed away recently, and Priya K. read an extract from Green is the Colour.

Thanks : to all those who braved the rain, those who read, those who sold books, those who auctioned art, those who helped set up and put away and wash glasses, Shahril Nizam who designed the blogposter, and of course Seksan for the use of his beautiful space and the stunning visual backdrop provided by the current exhibition.

Our next readings is on April 19th and among the writers appearing will be author Kunal Basu.

Poetic Passions

Ahnaf in today's Starmag does a very good job of providing an overview of what's happening on the live literary scene in KL. Noting that:

Over the past two years, the idea of poets performing their work rather than just writing for themselves or simply reading it aloud has become increasingly popular ...

he interviews local performance poets Priya Kulasegaran and George Wielgus (left - and soon to appear at Readings@Seksan) as well as Bernice Chauly and Chris Mooney-Singh of WordForward who is bringing Poetry Slam to KL.

Priya talks about how audiences for Project OMG have been steadily growing through word of mouth and I think she's right when she says:

Younger people like us are getting involved ... After being fed the kind of music you’re supposed to listen to, and the kind of movies you’re supposed to watch, there’s a kind of reaction.

I'm glad that the piece also highlights the contribution of the British Council and the Wayang Kata events and workshops it organises and also the wonderful irony that the organisation that has done most to encourage a local literary scene is a foreign one.

Bernice Chauly talks about how live literature events have helped to create a much-needed sense of community among local writers, and also how our Malaysian authors doing so well on the world stage, have really done a lot to encourage local writers as well. Bernice says that when Tash Aw won the Whitbread first novel award in 2005:

It was like, ‘Oh wow, Malaysians? Writers? Really? So good, ah? Wow.’

Yeah, that good. Believe it!

Note: Links to the organisers of spoken words events are listed in a side-bar. The email given to contact me about Readings is wrong - please use sharonbakar@yahoo.com if you want to get in touch.

Malaysian Poetry Idol

Some pictures from last night's poetry extravaganza at Wayang Kata IV at No Black Tie.

As usual the event was entertainingly compared by Jerome Kugan and Jasmine Low doing their famous double act.

Jerome also rolled up his sleeves and sang for us:

Jasmine read some of her poetry, and Shahrul Nizam read some pieces from his new collection If Only. (And was a lot less shy reading than I thought he'd be!)

Then the six poets competing for three places to go to the Singapore Writers' Festival in December:

Priya K.

Liyana Yusof

Bathsheba Zlikha Arsalan

Datuk Shan

Patricia Low

And ... oh my goodness, realised that I didn't get a photo of Divya KM Jiwa! My biggest apologies.

Members of the audience got to vote for their favourite. Daphne Lee, Pang Khee Teik, and I were the judges and we looked for those whose words had touched us most deeply. The standard overall was high (and I'm so happy to see how far these guys have come on, performing their work). A special commendation to Shan for making us laugh and Zlikha for her dazzling showmanship which involved several changes of clothing.

When the votes and our marks were tallied, the winners were Priya, Liyana and Divya. Well done, guys.

I missed some of the later stuff as I was hiding from all the cigarette smoke which was bringing back the hacking cough I thought I'd got rid of. But who was the woman with the truly astonishing singing voice? I want to buy her album! And who was the hip-hop poet? I want him for my readings later on!

Oh My Gosh - It's OMG!

Message from Priya K:

Just wanted to let you know that the next Project OMG! gig will be on the 19th of August at Dram Projects. We're looking for poets/writers/general ruckus-causing participants for the event, so would you please help spread the word? :) We've also decided on a general theme of sorts, in conjunction with the Merdeka related hype of the month - so we are leaning towards Malaysia-related content. It can be pro-patriotism or anti-government or whatever, as long as it relates to the your experiences of what being Malaysian or living in Malaysia is all about.

If you want to take part contact her: priyaish at gmail dot com.

Voices @ Seksan

Our "Readings" event yesterday went really well. I'm always happily gobsmacked at the great support the writers get, so thanks sincerely to all who came. I always ask Reza to estimate the size of crowds because he's good at counting things, and he reckoned there were more than 40.

Azwan Ismail went first. Now here is a very sporting guy! I'd called him up just the night before to ask him to read when another reader had to pull out, and was so happy that he said yes.

Azwan, and engineer by day and a poet full-time, is a regular at open mic sessions (usually wearing his trademark fedora!) and has just published a poetry zine called Mantra, which he was kind enough to give me a copy of. (I promised to pass him a donation for it and forgot. Next time, Azwan.) He read just three poems, two in Malay and one in English. I think the first was called Ada Seseorang Terbakar (There's Someone on Fire) which mixed images of snow and blood, heat and cold. I like this one called Satan & Angel which I found on his blog.

Reza Rosli was next. His first time in front of the microphone, but he grew in confidence as he read his pieces and in the end I think was enjoying himself. Reza has only recently begun putting his writing out into the world, though I've long enjoyed his writing on his blog. He read poems In the Glass House (written from a dream) one about his lovely little blue bubble of a Smart car (almost a love poem, and I don't blame him because it is a dinky little thing that I much envy ... maybe he should sell the poem to the company for advertising? ... earlier version of it here) , and another about kayaking in Thailand with wonderful imagery of the weight of the sky.

He also read a piece of prose Eh, Saya Muslim, Tak Boleh (subtitled Or, How Being A Muslim Saved Me From Getting Buggered) that had its genesis during my writing course (Got to be a proud teacher here!) the story of how he was almost sexually assaulted by a huge fellow in a dark back alley. We were all listening breath with bated breath to hear how he managed to slide out of a potentially terrifying situation with a bit of quick thinking. You can read the piece here, but Reza improvised a little on it, I think! (Which in a sense just goes to show how valuable it is to read work aloud to see how the voice comes through and the audience responds.)


I first met Alina Rastam a couple of years ago when we both gave a talk at Silverfish about reading groups of different kinds and I was very impressed that she was running classes in literature for adult learners ... because there is very little in this country for working folks who want to further their education in a more informal context.

Alina is a freelance writer and editor, and part-time lecturer in literature at Monash and is involved with women's movement in Malaysia. She hs written on literature for various publications including the New Straits Times and Off The Edge.

She read a couple of poems from her first collection Diver & Other Poems which I reviewed a couple of days back: Prayer and Morning Song the first written for a teacher who greatly influenced her life and the second which she wrote for her partner. Both were pieces in which she had poured out her whole heart - and she read obviously feeling the full emotional impact of the poems. We're hungry for more, Alina, so come back another day.

Tinling Choong was next and read to us from her first novel FireWife the story of the extraordinarily generous Zimi who leases her forehead as advertising space. It was so nice to hear the extract read in her voice. Tinling has been nominated for a Henry Miller Award for Best Literary Sex Scene. (As they say, Malaysia boleh!) It makes all of us, I'm sure, very proud to see a local author have a publishing success overseas ... and it says, hey, it is possible after all guys.

After the break (and I always feel such a spoil sport for dragging folks back when they're so busy enjoying the drinks and the conversation) it was the lovely Jit Murad who needs no introduction. Jit wanted to illustrate just how much further a playwright needs to go developing the back story of his characters so that he/she really knows them. He read us the monologues of two of his characters which you will actually never hear in the play he's working on (Mr. Metro) - both with very different voices, the first (Chris Tong who called himself Chris because it was the nearest name he could find to Krystal Carrington). Very enjoyable.

Last ... and the youngest, but by no means least was Priya K. I first met Priya when she did my writing course some time back and was very happy that she chose to read a piece (edgy, dark, mysterious ... almost graphic fiction in words) she wrote for that course, as well as a poem about KL she wrote when she did Jacob Sam-La Rose's workshop which captures the city very well. Priya has also been writing and performing with The Oral Stage, and is a law student.

My biggest thanks ... as always ... to those who read and those who came. (By the way it was lovely to see our Glenda and I do hope she can be persuaded to read for us another day!)

To Seksan for his kindness in letting us use his lovely space.

To whoever painted the intriguing picture of terrorists in diapers which was our backdrop. (It was part of the notthatbalai art festival.)

To La Bodega for generously giving us a crate of wine.

I hope that I can arrange the next "Readings" at Seksans on 25th August when we will have Preeta Samarasan among the guests joining us. Bernice is also organising "Readings at No Black Tie" on 5th August and a special edition for our 50 years Merdeka celebrations on 31st! Details to be confirmed.

There is a poetry jam on Friday night 3rd August at Bau Bau cafe at Central Market as part of the notthatbalai art festival, and on Saturday 4th July the Maskara readings happening again at Rumah Pena.

Don't you feel that lovely buzz of good things happening?

Other Links:

Sufian has some great photos mostly of those informal moments when you did not notice him lurking! Eternal Wanderer wrote the event up for KL Weekly. (Many thanks!)

Reza (aka Madcap Machinist) has written a fantastic piece about how the whole experience of reading. It is a pretty terrifying thing to do, especially for the first timers.

Lovely quote from Glenda:

Yesterday I went to a reading by some Malaysian authors and was impressed by the level of talent. Damn, but there are some good writers out there. And courageous ones too, who aren't afraid to stand up and say: this is what I am and you can't change it with your threats or your self-righteous religiosity...

Amen! Who got the hotline to heaven better than inspired scribblers?

The Young Ones

Would you believe our slam has made the papers yet again? This time it's mentioned in a very nicely written piece about our young performance poets by Syarifah Syaliza Alia in the Youth section of today's Star.

Syar interviews Sharanya (photo left, by Leon Wing), as well as Project OMG's Pat Low and Priya K (below) and Nicholas Wong.

I love Priya's can-do attitude, which is really Project OMG's whole attitude:

Anyone can hold a reading, even if I don’t like to admit it ... You just need the commitment, how much you’re willing to put into it.

Just do it lah, don't wait for permission.

And here's a quotable quote from Nic:

I think young writers nowadays are quite self-absorbed in their art ... They see it (their poetry) as a means of expressing themselves primarily and not see it as a collective responsibility to speak for others, to others.

If young guys like these represent the future of poetry in this country, then let's just say, it's in excellent hands.

Sharanya's Launch at Indie Scene Cafe

There's been a lot going on this weekend. and I'm only just getting round to blogging it!

First Sharanya had a do at the Indie Scene Cafe Fiday night to launch her prety chapbook, Iyari. The event was supposed to start at 7 p.m. but it was a total nightmare to get down there with all the jams and it was after 8 when I arrived ... and that after running from the top of Bukit Bintang because I couldn't stand any more crawling in traffic.

Luckily (for me!) the start of the reading was delayed by the carolling "Santarinas" in the foyer of Piccolo Galleria. Sharanya had got a great crowd of friends there, and the atmosphere was just so warm and supportive. Even before anyone began to read, I was glad I had got my lazy self out of the house.

Sharanya has posted everyone's biodatas on her blog, so please go there for more information on her invited "talents". But here follows the pics I took.

Sharanya looked gorgeous in a black sari with gold trim and with big white roses in her hair. (She had also grown a few inches thanks to her platform shoes!) She did her job as host very well indeed - the open mic readings falling between her own readings. it was very special to hear her read poems that I've only seen on the page before.

Hafiz performed a beautiful song called Dengarkanlah (Please Listen) with lyrics by Nizam Zakaria (below). (You can download a demo version of the song here.) I didn't snap Hafiz because I was busy eating pizza!

Roy read a piece about being stopped at a police road block when neither he or his friend had a valid driver's license and ... er ... coming to an arrangement with a policeman.

Datuk Shan and Faridah Manaf did a nice little duet with a poem they had bounced back and forward by e-mail the night before.

Tshiung Han See read his poems ...

... and Priya K read a short piece ...

Nicholas Wong is distressingly talented for one so young (17) and has already won awards for his writing and had his poetry published. He's off to Columbia University in September to read Comparative Literature and Creative Writing.

Another very talented young man ... known simply as KG! His cousin also read a piece.

Somewhere in there too was me. Sharanya introduced me as the matriach of the local writing scene. Aiyoh, that sounds very scary!

I read a short short about an old couple warring over a dining chair that ends up abandoned and ruined in the garden. I wrote it some months ago and still haven't got polished to the point where I'd feel happy sending it out. Maybe after this I'll revise it again.

Thanks to Sharanya for inviting me and putting such an enjoyable evening together. Thanks too to Jasmine and Nicky for making this excellent little venue available to us. Indie Scene Cafe closes at the end of the month. How nice it would be to have a more permananent home for it ...

Rojak Revisited

Fiona and I went to see The Oral Stage's Rojak on Sunday with Fiona Wan at KLPac, principally to cheer on one of our own. (Both Priya and Fiona did my writing class.) But I always suffer pangs of guilt that I don't make enough effort to see local productions, particularly when some of the freshest local writing finds its way onto stage. As happened too with this collection of shorts and monologues.

Rojak was an excellent name for the production, because there was such a variety of stories and styles. Sanjiv Gnaneswaran's Who Wants to be a Malaysian? was a hilarious skit in the Instant Cafe Theatre mould - a multiple choice test for all those who want to become citizens. Sample question: What do malaysian's use least when they're on the road: a) their indicators b)their helmets c)their seatbelts d) their brains.

Rauf Fadzillah's The Damnation Recital was most surreal and dark - the characters trapped in a kind of hell. I'm not sure I "got" it, but the staging was compelling. I loved the moment when his main character laughed at the audience telling them that he had taken something from us all, something we didn't have anymore - fifteeen minutes of our lives.

My favourite piece was Me Speak No French written by Doreen Loo and performed by Emily Yoon - a very clever monologue on the difficulties of hosting an elegant dinner party. I suppose I enjoyed it most because I can identify with it. I've also ended up with a beautifully laid table, a gourmet dinner in the oven - and no guests.

Two very good pieces by Patricia Low could have been stronger with a little more dramatic tension. Print was an extended conversation between two guys sitting at a roadside mamak stall. Low has an excellent ear for dialogue, and you got the impression that you could have been a fly on the table at a real stall. But there was no climax in the scene until the two guys got hit by a passing car. (Quite realistic in the Malaysian context!) But all drama needs conflict or it sags.

Low's A Very Happy Story showed how life would be in the perfect family with no discord. Kids who have their mind set firmly on their studies and don't talk back, parents who are constantly kind and considerate. Of course it all becomes surreal and even a little frightening! (Have these guys been lobotomised?!) But I was expecting something to happen and shatter the dream - and it needed to happen. As Lagos Egri says:

Conflict is the heartbeat of all writing.

Priya appeared in her own Romanticization, looking desperately sick, arm in sling, on a hospital bed and was soon involved in a conversation with a "nurse" who seemed to be another part of herself, reminding her of all the abuse and exploitation at the hands of the different men in her life and the way women are often in denial about what happens to them.

Fiona and I were pondering everything we had seen in the car on the way home. There was a fair bit we hadn't quite understood (What do you think that represented? Was it supposed to be -?). But we both agreed we'd been thoroughly entertained and there was an awful lot of emerging talent on that stage.

Rauf and Priya looking ghoulish in the lobby afterwards!

Rojak, Anyone?

This is a plug for Rojak playing at KLPac until Sunday.

It's :

... an original blend of shorts and monologues, tossed with a spoonful of youth and matters close to our hearts. From happy families, sudden deaths, sinking boats to talking mannequins, ROJAK! is dark, gooey and pedas as we Malaysians like it. Every serving includes a generous portion of nuts, on the house. ... This production is presented by The Oral Stage, which is a non-profit group of theatre-curious youth who direct and star in their own plays. Immersing themselves in theatre without lifejackets, they hope to come out alive learning a thing or two. Currently in their second season, TOS strives to make theatre more accessible to the public, especially young people, through their stage performances and community involvement.

Priya who did my creative writing course last year wrote one of the plays and is performing (I feel like a proud mum!). Also in the cast is Rauf Fadzillah a very talented young writer I've written about before. The Oral Stage also has a lively blog which you might like to check out.

By the way, for anyone across the world who doesn't know what rojak means: it's a delicious Malaysian fruit salad, and so is used to refer metaphorically to an eclectic mix of things in Malaysian English.