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Taming Tigers

If you have not read this book, get you hands on it quick!
Yes, I'm serious, it is that good.

why?

simply because it is unforgivingly, brutally honest.

What I love of this book is basically the fact that not a single word has gone to waste. Every single description is relevant, and makes for a pinpoint analogy of each scenario in the book. When you traverse each sentence, you already have an idea what the author is trying to portray in the way he describes what the characters do, wear, walk, talk. the simple gestures represent the very soul of the culture so imminently depicted in this book.

And the main character, Balram, seems so real that you could almost believe that he actually runs around in the streets, er, slums of India. The complexity of emotions and the inner turmoil he felt as he expresses his views on the issues.

The author's ideas of a new-age caste of small-bellied and big-bellied people and the Rooster Coop has been compellingly displayed along the storyline, and you could actually understand the conflict going on in this book and sense the subtle criticisms and the desire for change in certain areas of the system. (I could even match some of the ideologies to the local scene =P).

Some people might regard this as political fiction, but the fact that the author effectively utilises dark humor and satire in his storytelling makes it a sarcastic yet entertaining read.

Similarly so, Slumdog Millionaire (which I have yet to watch) seems like another unforgivingly, brutally honest work of art.

Whereas, the local flick, Budak Kelantan, is somewhat the portrayal of the gedebe-ness of Kelantanese boys. However, lest we assume that only Kelantanese boys are like that. The idea of the film is basically to reflect on the good and the bad in our own society. All the other rowdy kids of the other states have also had 'dangerous adventures' like that depicted by the character in the movie, it is unfair to condemn the Kelantanese alone who perpetrate all that misbehavior, but the gedebe (gangster-like) Kelantanese boy is portrayed in this flick simply because the Kelantanese themselves have a unique culture (their dialect, hell yeah, it's my first language at school), some good, some bad, but all the same human- and Malaysian.

Just because the Indians are protrayed as ruthless, conniving people in The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire, and the Kelantanese are portrayed as gedebe, doesn't mean that other people don't have it in them too. They do, only up to some degree, but the fact is, they do. It can actually be applicable to anyone , for those who actually care to stop and observe the world today.

These masterpieces don't actually degrade a certain culture, but rather opens our eyes with the unforgiving, brutal honesty that they serve, and might, perhaps, imply a desire of shifting paradigms.

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Anonymous said…
RE: your comment

dear NANA,
thanks for your current comment on my blog. firstly, please bear in mind that in Islam, we must use words first. but, we used words over n over again but there is no change AT ALL(note:prefects used to advise BJ last year but he still smoke this year). so, we go to the next step, advice with a little 'harsh' (don't know other wors that fit in). however these kids do not understant what we are doing. so, they report it to cikgu and say that we bullied them and say that they do NOTHING!!!
if they confessed what they had done and said that 'senior'(which now invalid)punished them for what they had done...it's fine. at least they know that they had done something that provoked other people. on the other hand, they looked like those innocent all-white angle and we looked like those bad satans. is it worth all that we had done to them??? and you know what will happen if there are lots of dicipline cases are happening in our school??? tcher will start to questioning,"WHAT THE HELL ARE THE ROLES OF PREFECTS IN THIS 'REMARKABLE' SCHOOL??? that is fine. but, when they say senior should teach junior how to behave well, i don't see what are the points of the teachers are talking like that!!! because, we teach how to behave well, but the say to cigku that we bullied them, eradicate their rights to do what they want(is it smoking in school are their rights???). if we 9seniors) cannot behave well, at least we can teach them how to do it...that's all
thanks
9:39 AM
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