2012 is a blank page...

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
- T S Eliot, poet (1888-1965)

A book everyone should have

I found out about the book on the late Yasmin Yusuf's blog. She called it "one of the most important books I've read all year (2006)", which was good enough for me to buy a copy. And she was right except to me, it is one of the most important I've read and will continue to read, a book that I will be picking up every so often. Because it gives me so much, makes me think, makes me feel, and makes me want to do better. Indeed, to me, it is a book that everyone should have.

That book is Purification of the Heart - Signs, Symptoms, and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart, a translation and commentary of Imam al-Mawlud's Matharat al-Qulub by Hamza Yusuf.

In the book's introduction, Hamza writes, "When people are completely immersed in the material world, believing that this world is all that matters and all that exists and that they are not accountable for their actions, they effect a spiritual death of their hearts. Before the heart dies, however, it shows symptoms of affliction. These afflictions are the spiritual diseases of the heart (the centre of our being)... (which) relates to our desires exceeding their natural state, as when people live merely to satisfy these urges and are led by them."

The book is based on the poem, Matharat al-Qulub, which offers the means by which purification of the heart can be achieved. The poem was written by Shaykh Muhammad Mawlud al-Yaqubi al-Musawi al-Muratani, who hailed from Mauritania, West Africa, a master of Islamic sciences. Hamza translates and comments on the poem as it examines a range of afflictions of the heart: miserliness; wantonness; hatred; iniquity; love of the world; envy; blameworthy modesty; fantasising; fear of poverty; ostentation; relying on other than God; displeasure with the Divine Decree; seeking reputation; false hopes; negative thoughts; vanity; fraud; anger; heedlessness; rancour; boasting and arrogance; displeasure with blame; antipathy towards death; obliviousness to blessings; and derision.

Hamza says, "If we examine the trials and tribulations, wars and other conflicts, every act of injustice all over earth, we'll find they are rooted in human hearts. Covetousness, the desire to aggress and exploit, the longing to pilfer natural resources, the inordinate love of wealth and position, and other maladies are manifestations of diseases found nowhere but in the heart. Every criminal, miser, abuser, scoffer, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. If hearts were sound, these actions would no longer be a reality. So if we want to change our world, we do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead we must change the condition of our inward. Everything we see happening outside of us is in reality coming from the unseen world within. It is from the unseen world that the phenomenal world emerges, and it is from the unseen realm of our hearts that all actions spring." 

One year is coming to an end very soon, and another is set to begin, God willing. At this time, with thoughts of starting anew, many make all kinds of resolutions. Why not keep it simple? Just look within and aim to change just one thing about yourself, which could be as simple as to not waste food, or to donate RM50 a month to charity, or to think before you speak. 

May we all strive to be better people in the New Year and all the years to come, people who will give to the community, people whose words and actions will benefit others, people who will care and give a thought to others. 

A gem of a book

What makes a good book project? First on the list would be that the project is top-driven by a client with a clear brief and open to new ideas. Often, clients want a book but are clueless about what sort of book they want, such that the project becomes a time-wasting process of elimination - okay, he doesn't want that; no, that one isn't working for him either; afraid that isn't quite it.

Next on the list would be a small team comprising top management members (three is a good number) that is empowered to make decisions on the book, a team that doesn't have to refer to the chairman or the council at every turn. And third, which is important to get the project moving along, is a liaison or link person, someone within the organisation, who is committed and excited about the project. This person has to know what materials are required and who to talk to, and be able to sort out meetings and interviews.

My brother Zaid Omar of Milk Design and I were fortunate to have the above when we worked on the tenth anniversary coffee-table book for the Federation of Malaysian Unit Trust Managers. We enjoyed the same experience with the book commissioned by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) to commemorate its 40th anniversary. The team responsible for the book couldn't have been more top-driven - the members were MIA's president and vice-president at that time, Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid and Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff respectively, and council member Dato' Khalid Ahmad. And the person pushing the project along was head of communications Iszudin Mohd Amin.

What they didn't want was a boring blue book. They wanted a fresh contemporary design and liked the concept of employing art in the book. When we suggested caricatures of key people to accompany quotations, they were all for the idea. The book utilised the ruby, the gemstone denoting a 40th anniversary, as its main design element. The red of the ruby was perfect to signify "a vibrant profession that plays a vital role in Malaysia's economy" and its facets were carried through as a feature within the book's pages.

The book cover of Malaysian Institute of Accountants: 

National Aspirations, Global Ambitions 1967-2007

The sharp facets of the ruby are reflected in the side-bar and captions on the page above 

and the illustrations below.

Some of the people interviewed are depicted in caricatures to accompany their call-out quotations.

Five original art-pieces set the stage for each chapter in vivid colours and flamboyant figures.

Tracing the History

Strengthening the Profession

Educating Accountants

Promoting the Institute

Going Forward

Zaid and I found the MIA book project team brilliant to work with because its members trusted us to deliver what we do best, i.e. to design and write. They didn't impose their personal styles on us and, thanks to their international exposure, they appreciated contemporary design. For example, on seeing an opening page as follows, some clients would balk and say, "What? So much space wasted!"

To their credit, the MIA team members knew what white space and balance on a page were all about. Working closely together with them, we succeeded in producing a gem of a book.

Photo-break #4

She jumped into view at the right moment

- shot at the Al-Khaadem Family Day on 8 October 2011.

All you need is love

If I were to write a biography, I would like to do it the way Bob Spitz put together the lives of the Fab Four, whom we all know as John, Paul, Ringo and George, into a book that you can't put down, although it's almost 1,000 pages long. Spitz certainly worked hard on the book - his bibliography of books; pamphlets, fanzines and catalogues; unpublished sources; letters and personal correspondence; audio and video; interviews from other sources; and internet sources run into eleven pages. All that research resulted in a book of 37 chapters, the text of which is supported by notes running from page 864 to 947. And there are, of course, photographs.

But don't let the size of the book scare you. It is a very readable book, thanks to Spitz's ability to turn dry facts into a rich and fascinating story of how four young talented men became one of the music world's most creative phenomenon... ever. You can read about how Spitz wrote the book here.

The book takes you through the lives of each of the Fab Four, their family backgrounds, how they grew up, the circumstances that brought them into one another's world, their early struggle, the fame that then came to them, their loves and marriages, and the differences, creative and personal, that sadly tore them apart. 

Is there mention of Yoko Ono, the woman whom many of us loved to hate? Definitely, one instance being how she and John met at a party: "... this sphinxlike woman merely handed him a card, which John turned over in his hands a few times. There was nothing on it except a single word: BREATHE. 'You mean, like this?' John asked, panting like a winded terrier. That was it, yes, that's what she'd intended. Yes ... breathe. John liked that; it was part of the joke." 

And of Yoko's relationship with the other three Beatles: "For someone who desired more interaction with the Beatles, Yoko acted resentful, even scornful toward them. She found the band to be 'very childish.' As different as it seemed to mainstream ears, to her there was nothing daring about it, and she hooked right into John's own lingering doubts about his creative powers and self-fulfillment."

Hopefully, these little snippets would send you to the bookshop to get your own copy. It's rather ironic that there just wasn't enough love amongst the four to keep them as one.

Authors' autographs

I wonder whether today's schoolchildren like collecting autographs, like my friends and I used to do back then. At the end of a school-year, we would happily whip out our autograph books to get the signatures of our friends, teachers and, if we dared, the headmistress and disciplinary master. Our teachers would accompany theirs with words of encouragement for the future, e.g. "If you truly apply yourself, you have the potential to go far." Friends, of course, couldn't resist the opportunity to be cheeky, such as "Roses are red, violets are blue. Even when I'm dead, I'll ingat you." (ingat = remember)

Now that I'm in the writing world, an author's signature is what I'm after. In 2003, in London, I walked into Waterstone's, a bookshop at Picadilly. There in the foyer, I saw piles of the book Alec Guinness - The Authorised Biography neatly arranged on a few tables. I like to read biographies to get insights into the lives of particular people; also to see how the author tells the story of his subject to make it a compelling read. As I was looking at the book of Alec Guinness, I saw a tall man sitting alone in the corner, signing copies of the book - it was Piers Paul Read, the author. I've read his books and recognised him from photographs on those books. There were only the two of us in the foyer at that time. He looked up, noticed me and asked, "Would you like me to sign one just for you?" I replied, "Would you?" He got up, took a copy, asked for my name and signed away. As he walked out the door, he said, "I hope you enjoy it." I went off to pay for the book, happy as anything.

In an earlier post, I related how I got the signature of Tun Mahathir Mohamad on his book The Malay Dilemma. I obtained that of Tun Ahmad Sarji, who co-wrote P Ramlee - The Bright Star with James Harding, in the same manner when I interviewed him for an article.

Riemke Ensing is a New Zealand poet who visited Kuala Lumpur in October 2000. I was one of the guests at the residence of the New Zealand High Commissioner for a reading of her poems and I wouldn't go home without a signed copy of Selected Poems - Talking Pictures.

At a fund-raising dinner organised by the Al-Khaadem Foundation about three years ago, the guest speaker was James Yee, the former US Army Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. His book, For God and Country, is his memoir about the abusive ordeal he went through at the hands of the American government.

Another way to get authors' autographs is to participate in literary events, which was how these books were signed: Shanghai Dancing by Australian writer Brian Castro, Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb from Canada, and The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian Tash Aw, whose successful international debut gave hope to many aspiring local writers. 

And there are books written by friends. One special person is Rehman Rashid who signed my copy of A Malaysian Journey; he really is overdue for a second book. 

My friend Peter Anderson, a writer and photographer, put together his 25 years of travelling around the world in Cons, Fools and Friends. I would love it if the book has his splendid photographs too.   

Some years back, I participated in the Silverfish Writing Programme by Raman Krishnan who has compiled several of his short stories into The Wedgwood Ladies Football Club and Other Stories. One of the participants was Chua Kok Yee, the only one amongst my batch who can claim to be a published author with his two books, News From Home (together with 'graduates' from other batches, Shih-Li Kow and Rumaizah Abu Bakar) and Without Anchovies.

One of the most prized of my autographed books is Voices of the Angi by Phyllis Mullinder, the mother of my best friend Christine Mullinder when I was a student at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Phyllis wrote the story of a pioneering family, who settled in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay, when she was in her 70s.

She is proof that it's never too late to be a writer.

Photo-break #3

Shades of white (one of the photos featured in Hajj - the Humbling Journey) - 

shot at the courtyard of Masjid al-Haram, Makkah, Saudi Arabia - 11 November 2010.

Give me books, says the sultan

When a dignitary is invited as guest-of-honour to some big event, he would without fail be presented with some memento as a token of appreciation for his presence. I have been to a number of such functions and I have often wondered what happens to the memento afterwards. Of course, that would depend on the memento given but I have no doubt that if it's yet another pewter plate, plaque or some meaningless item in a glass case, it will be designated to a dark corner in the store-room. What a waste of money!

The Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, is one dignitary who is invited to more events than he can ever remember and his store-room must be filled to the ceiling with items that he has no use for whatsoever. It was refreshing to read in a local newspaper recently that he is requesting organisers to give him books instead of expensive presents. Obviously keen on recycling, His Highness said that after reading the books, he will pass them on to the public library.

I'm a firm believer in giving books as presents. Ask my nieces - they never had to guess very hard what were inside the nicely wrapped packages they got on their birthdays. And now I've started to give books as wedding presents as well; my favourite set for a newly-married Muslim couple is The Muslim Family Series comprising four books that cover the whole spectrum of family life, from the wedding to the spouses' rights and obligations, to marital intimacy and to Islamic regulations for newborns.

What better way to start a new life together than with the right knowledge according to the Quran and Sunnah? My Auntie Chom tells me that she has been giving my book Hajj - the Humbling Journey, co-written with Yasmin Gan Abdullah, for weddings.

As I've posted earlier, I love books, which means I love buying them. I can't resist bookshops and can happily spend hours in them. More often than not, I'd leave with a book or two. But there comes a point when my shelves just can't take any more.

One of my bookshelves

And I still have books waiting to be read!

I will read them... eventually

So what do you do when you have lots of books but not enough shelf space for all of them? My answer is simple - give them away. I have this rule now. After reading a book, I ask myself if I would want to read it again. If I would, the book goes on my shelf; if not, I'd give it away. I started the ball rolling by going through my books a couple of months ago and ended up with quite a few boxes that went to Viva Palestina Malaysia for its fund-raising bazaars.

There are other ideas on what to do with your books if you don't want to keep them, which can wait for another time. 

"No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books." 

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Last-minute call

It was 2001; I had been writing freelance for just about two years and was eager to build up my work portfolio. Therefore, when my friend Tan Kwang How, a management consultant whom I got to know quite well when I was working full-time, called me with a project offer, I was ready to listen.

"The situation is like this," he explained. "The publisher McGraw-Hill had asked Maimunah Aminuddin and I to produce a four-book set on human resource management. Maimunah wrote one of the books, I did two and someone else did the fourth book on managing performance. Unfortunately, this fourth book is not up-to-mark and I'd like to ask you to write a new one from scratch."

I was attracted to the offer. I had heard of Maimunah, a human resources specialist who had written several books on human resource management and industrial relations, and liked the idea of being part of this joint initiative. "But," Tan went on, "you need to have the final draft ready within a month and it has to be about 100 pages long." I said okay, even though I would be paid royalty based on sales, something which I'm not keen on because the total amount I would receive would be very small, given book sales in this country.

I accepted the job because of the opportunity to work with Maimunah, who functioned as editor of the series, and Tan. Also, McGraw-Hill is a reputable international publisher and being a co-writer of one of their book sets would look good on my portfolio. I completed the final draft in time and the end result is Managing Performance in Malaysian Organisations, one of four books that make up The HRM Toolkit for Malaysian Practitioners. The other three books in the set are Recruitment and Selection in Malaysian Organisations (by Tan), Compensation Management in Malaysian Organisations (also by Tan) and Effective Training in Malaysian Organisations (by Maimunah).

It was quite an experience to receive a cheque every now and then over a number of years. The lengthy time in-between cheques meant that I'd forget about the royalty payment and would be pleasantly surprised to receive one in the post, regardless of the amount.

Photo-break #2

Featuring photos I've taken over the years. 

This one was shot at Golden Palm Tree, Sepang, Selangor - 14 March 2011.

My aunt the author

Datin Kalsom Taib (who I call Auntie Chom) and my late father are first cousins. Her family and that of my father's are especially close and, at the age of twelve, I was one of two bridesmaids, the other being my cousin Rozila, at her wedding reception in December 1966. A teacher then, little did she realise that she would go on to become one of the country's foremost human resource practitioner, gaining and honing her expertise in multinationals Shell Malaysia, Malaysia Mining Corporation and Nestle Malaysia. She retired from Nestle in 1997 as its Human Resource Director.

But Auntie Chom is not one to keep still. She has boundless energy. After her retirement, her extensive human resource experience made her a much sought-after consultant in the field. And if that wasn't enough to keep her busy, she turned a family waffle recipe into a business, setting up Waffle Stop together with her son. It started as a food kiosk in busy Jalan Bukit Bintang and now has several outlets, the busiest located in Alamanda Shopping Centre, Putrajaya.

And then Auntie Chom found her true passion - writing. Within two years, in 2009 and 2010, she researched and wrote three biographies of people dear to her: father Tan Sri Taib Andak; mother Puan Sri Zainab Ahmad; and husband Dato' Shafee Yahaya.

The first book, Taib Andak - In a Class of His Own published in 2009, records the life and times of her father (Tok Yeb to me), including his lifelong friendship with Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. It traces Taib's contributions to Malaysia as a civil servant, as the man trusted by the prime minister to get FELDA off the ground, and as the one tasked with strengthening Maybank after it had suffered an image-tarnishing run in October 1966. The book begins with a look at Taib's Bugis roots and ends with reflections from family members of a much loved father and well respected Malaysian. Taib, born on 4 June 1916, passed away peacefully on 19 August 1997.

I was the editor of this book, an involvement that gave me an insight into Auntie Chom's tenacity in achieving her goal. The research itself was a labour of love, as she poured through family documents, tracked down records and sifted through countless family photographs to write the book that she wanted. Then came the production phase, an aspect in which Auntie Chom was so hands-on that her visits to the MPH office to check on the book's progress must have created anxiety in more than one person. I accompanied her on a few of these visits and I'm convinced that she has been the only author allowed to pop into the rooms of the senior people there with a hello, a cheerful smile and a box of cupcakes, and look over the shoulders of the designer with suggestions on where to place this photograph and that. I truly admire her dedication, determination, persistence and refusal to accept second-best. 

There was no rest for Auntie Chom after her first book was published. She felt that her mother (my Tok Nab) also deserved to have a book of her own, "as an example of a woman who has lived her life to its fullest without regret, took her challenges in stride, and who has touched the lives of so many people around her... (a story) that encapsulates little 'life' lessons." With the same drive that had resulted in the book on her father, Auntie Chom wrote her second book, Zainab Ahmad - A Truly Remarkable Woman, and got it published in time to be launched on Tok Nab's 90th birthday celebration on 7 May 2009. Born in 1919, Tok Nab continues to amaze us with her dignity and love of life. 

And then came Auntie Chom's third book about her husband Shafee Yahaya (Uncle Shafee to me), who overcame challenges in his early life to become a respected and incorruptible civil servant, retiring as head of the government's Anti-Corruption Agency. This book, The Shafee Yahaya Story - Estate Boy to ACA Chief published in 2010, almost didn't see the light of day. The reason for this rests in chapters 10 to 14 of the book, a gripping revelation of Uncle Shafee's shabby treatment by the political administration that he had loyally served. The publisher of Auntie Chom's earlier two books declined to produce it but she was undaunted. She set up her own publishing business and did the book herself. 

Having achieved so much in such a short time, you would think that Auntie Chom is ready to take it easy. Well, she isn't - next in the pipeline is a book of family recipes. And she is walking the talk of her convictions by accepting an offer from Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to head the women's wing of Angkatan Amanah Merdeka.

"If you are in doubt about the propriety of an act, do not do it. Rather, you should do only what you know to be good. Truth blesses you with peace of mind whereas falsehood torments you with uneasiness and tension."

Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), as narrated by Tirmidhi

Believe in yourself...

After more than a decade of freelance writing, I've come across all kinds of clients or potential clients. But before I go into these, let me get a chip off my shoulder. It still baffles me that organisations (some, not all) are prepared to throw away hundreds of thousands of Ringgit on glitzy, gimmicky events and promotions but will pay peanuts for writing and design work on their publications, brochures and pamphlets. Yet these are what the public will hold and read, and form an impression of the organisation. A shoddily-designed brochure, with text that's badly written and grammatically wrong, says a lot about what the organisation is - and isn't.

Alhamdulillah, I'm able to walk away from such organisations. It's not that I'm being arrogant but I find it demeaning to work for people who don't value or appreciate what I do. There have been a couple of times when I discovered too late the attitude of people whom I had to work with. One was a government agency. I was asked to attend a preliminary meeting at the director's office. When I was shown in, he was propped up in his chair reading a newspaper. Did he have the courtesy to put the newspaper down and greet me? Nope, he carried on reading as if I wasn't there.

After some time, he put down the newspaper, grunted a hello and called in his assistant. We then talked about the project at hand and the director asked me to attend a meeting with his colleagues, during which he intimated that I was to also act as some sort of secretary and take notes of the proceedings. I politely informed him that that wasn't what I understood my role to be and, taking a deep breath, I said that I didn't think I was the right person for the job. I thanked him and left.

The second situation involved a government ministry. The agency for the project had taken me on as writer and I went along with its design staff to an initial meeting to discuss the requirements. Imagine my surprise when we walked into a large conference room with 20 people or so who, we were told, were heads of departments (HODs) of the ministry. I was then informed that all my writing would be reviewed and commented upon by all these HODs! You guessed right if you concluded that I withdrew from the project - it's hard enough to get three people to share the same views, but 20? I just didn't want to waste my time.

I'm freelancing because I want to enjoy what I'm doing. If I'm not going to, then I'd rather not do it. The project can be a creatively difficult one and it can take some time, researching, interviewing and talking to many people - that's okay as long as the client respects me as a professional in my field, trusts me to deliver what I do best, i.e. write, and appreciates the work that goes into it.

And it's heartening that this has been the case for most of my clients, whose CEOs have the courtesy to even walk me to the lift, whose project teams comprise an average of three people empowered to direct the project, and whose managements have got better things to do with their time than to want to follow me every step of the way.

So my advice to would-be freelancers - believe in yourself and what you do, and walk away from clients who don't.

Photo-break #1

Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, Australia - 24 January 2011