The first guest speaker is Larry Parr who is co-author of business tycoon Tan Chin Nam's Never Say I Assume! (A whole lot of articles from the Star and about Tan Chin Nam have been archived here.)The other is Balan Moses. You may have already seen Brickfields: A Place, A Time, A Memory in the bookshops. I bought it the other day at the MPH Warehouse sale and have been enjoying it. I particularly enjoy the way that he combines the story of this area of the city with personal anecdote, photographs and charming sketches.
I must add that -I'm very fond of Brickfields, and got to know the area when I was supervising my students on teaching practice. Sometimes I had a long gap between the lesssons I had to observe and wandered around appreciating the food (wonderful banana leaf!), the green spaces, the architecture of the "100 Quarters" in Jalan Rozario - sturdy housing built by the British, and the general "Indianess" of the area. I also used to love to visit Skoob when my favourite secondhand bookshop was still in that area. I've been fascinated to find out about the history of the various buildings from Balan's book.The area is changing so fast now, with office blocks and condominiums,
luxury hotels and KL Sentral station, the main city transport hub, so the book captures a slice of the past before - sadly - it disappears forever.
Well, on Saturday, I'm going to be moderating the session, so I hope to see some of you there!
This is also a suitable point, I think, to put up an ad for the second Breakfast Club the following Saturday (24th) when Lydia Teh (Life's Like That) and Xeus (Dark City) will be slugging it out at MPH Bangsar Village II. (Isn't Kenny's poster great?)
