Event: 18 years of Readings @ Seksan KL

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Readings @ Seksan KL began in 2005 founded by writer and poet, Bernice Chauly and has been carried on until its 18th year this year by writing coach, editor and publisher, Sharon Bakar. A well-loved event, this particular installation was the first one for the year and was well attended. Returning to this Lucky Garden venue and meeting familiar faces after more than a decade was a truly special experience for me. There I stood, among a pen of warriors. My throat was dry as I hit record on my Zoom H1n. The effervescent emcee, Sumitra Selvaraj and organiser Sharon cajoled the audience and bantered about their 18-year-old. When you listen in, you cannot help but be brought right into that very room. You had to be there. There’s nothing like being in the crowd in-person.

Listen in:

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Good afternoon. 

Sharon Bakar and Sumitra Selvaraj of Readings @ Seksan KL, thank you for having me today. 

I’m Jasmine H. Low and I will be recording this session if you don’t mind, so please make some noise, KL! 

I will be reading two pieces. The first piece is from Chapter One of a work – in – progress, titled “Girl Gungho: The coming of age of a keyboard warrior”. 

Chapter One

Girl at Play

The stories in this chapter were written between 1998-2015 in and around Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle; Jalan Imbi, Jalan Sultan Ismail to Jalan Raja Chulan. It was at that time that the author discovered the KL arts scene, nightclubs and revisited Hick’s Road’s beef ball noodles where Shirl used to bring the author. It wasn’t quite the same as it was then.

An old uncle and a younger one, both dressed in white Pagoda t-shirts, knee-length brown pants that were two sizes too large held up by a brown buckled belt. These men were the masters of Midnight Diners in the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Bintang district. Their shack was just about 3 sqm and within that confine, they would brew up the most delicious wonton noodles where the most elegant of girls sweaty from clubbing gear and men in black would loudly sup and slurp. On that same street, another delicious brew of beef ball noodles Ngau Kee would cater to men in suits, ladies two-by-two and our motley crew. Across the road, there was a lady who was tall and toothless. She would befriend taxi drivers and chat with them. I only realised later that it wasn’t just a friendly chat but a negotiation taking place. She had a friend who was sometimes there, sometimes not. And just from where they patrolled, a group of poets and musicians would walk past nonchalant, heading for an open mic gig for a Doppelganger and Troubadours show. That row of quaint shophouses along Tengkat Tong Shin provided a backdrop, a stage where actors would strut the streets and rehearse their lines to an audience of taxi drivers, soul-searching backpackers and wonton slurping executives. Every moment savoured, I watched and was lost in search of my very own self. 

Thank you.

Next up is an episode from the Listen by Heart podcast. It started as a passion project spurred by International Women’s Day two years ago with a goal to record the voices of 99 women with Southeast Asian heritage, sharing stories about their lives, and those of their same DNA who travelled across the South China Sea to start a new life on the land where we stand today, here in Malaysia, my motherland.

I wrote this in 2021, as I was so troubled hearing the news report about an Indonesian submarine that sank in April 2021 with 53 human lives lost. The submarine was carrying out a torpedo firing drill. Again, in October that year, America’s fast attack sub, the USS Connecticut collided with an unknown object in the South China Sea with a dozen crew members injured. There’s a lot happening under the sea in our region. This is called… 

— don’t go so busy —

Written and narrated by Jasmine H. Low

don’t go so busy with your phones looking to the West when Western ideals are already insipidly you,

I mean what are YOUR values today huh? Hah?

Or does BTS speak to you more than your Tea’s gone Cold?

.

don’t go so busy with your serial whatsapp groups posting what you ate yesterday in the Western suburbs when so many troops are already in our open waters,

and 53 died when their old sub broke under 500-metres,

.

don’t go so busy choosing your cereal, your toothpaste while listening to that joe rogan on your airpods, washing your brains with #hashtags not even relevant to you, oh, wait, it’s now #stopasianhate

.

don’t go so busy run run running a million miles, yes miles we once were before the metre, cos you’re just feeding the big brother watching your every movement, even your fittest of bits on your Fitbit, wait I hear Singapore pays you $188 a year with your daily 10,000 steps hit!

.

don’t go so clever posting pics of your every meal, your lunch, your dinner, your piece of keto liver, your every calorie saved, your fitness pal my fitness pal who cares

.

don’t go so crazy do research, research here, research there, wondering which vaccine won’t give you clots, when your blood is already thickened by sucralose, sorbitol, maltodextrin even in baby’s formula and every sweetener the world has ever seen, see, those red dots? Ya it’s keratosis pilaris as that tiktok md says, but why is it a new normal, doc?!

.

haiya, don’t go la, just sit back, relax, drink your teh tarik and make it kurang manis, eat your Roti dipped in dahl and sambal, but so much carbs liao ditch the koay teow, turn on the news at the mamak but WAIT cannot be…

Is that Ann Lee* on TV?!

Are we back in 1993?!

— a woke prose as there are those who are wagging dog’s tails, donno what it means ah? google la, wag the dog’s tail is mean make you so busy you look look look your teevee until you don’t see where you walk then BOOM fall into longkang lah!

thank you ah!

— ends.

“Listen by Heart” streams across all podcast platforms.

More about Jasmine Low’s podcasts >>