Hob Nobbing With the Literati

Friend of mine, or more precisely, former wife of a friend of mine, although she is also my friend on her own right, Dina Zaman, launched her book last night, titled I AM MUSLIM. A collection of interviews, stories, experiences etc of a self explanatory title. It was held at the annexe of Central Market which I think is an art gallery in its day job, coz there were many canvasses there on the wall.

I bumped into an acquaintance whom I hadn't seen in years, and he gave me a mock sneer, (or was it mock) and asked, "what's a plebian like you doing here?". Anyway, it was the usual thing, speeches, presentations, and the unveiling of the book. It was also featured in NST yesterday.

Being late, we were stuck behind, and could only hear, not see.

I'm not sure what this is. Just held the camera up high and snapped.

The unveiling of the book.

The author autographing copies of the book.

After leaving the launch, me and wife were ravenous, so we trotted down towards Petaling Street, and had hokkien mee and pork soup (seems a bit of a ahem, paradox, having just come from a book launch titled I AM MUSLIM). Wife spotted some furry rodents lurking around in the background. After that, we headed to Petaling Street to pick up an Ultraman watch for baby boy. (as in kid no 3).


I love Petaling Street. It's so pulsating, and full of life. When Central Market had long gone to sleep, Petaling Street was still hustling (in more than one sense of the word) and bustling. With camera in hand, and wearing "decent" clothes for the launch, I must have looked like a tourist.

Somehow it reminds me of a scene from My Fair Lady. The market scene.

Another thing that caught my eye, when we went for the book launch, was THIS:

So much controversy surrounds this exhibition, and I remember when it first showed in Shah Alam, I was actually going to go all the way there to take a look. AFterall, they even have a fossilised mermaid on display, and I've ALWAYS wanted to see a mermaid. So, as we headed back to the car park, I told wifey that I absolutely HAD to satisfy my curiosity. So I paid RM6 for THIS:


That picture on the ticket stub is meant to be the mer-creature. Anyway, I can think of much better ways of spending RM6, in retrospect. eg, buying 7 pears in petaling street, or a fake spiderman watch. What I can't fathom is, there was talk about doing DNA testing on these displays to prove they're real. The toyol looked positively fake. Some miniature ghouls (forgot the name) male and female version, complete with genitalia hair at the correct parts, looked plausibly real....

The mermaid...or merman, surely, SURELY the entire scientific community should be tripping over themselves to verify its status and authenticity.

Wife had more sense, and opted to browse in the stalls outside, and managed to pick up some stuff. Anyway, to cap the very busy evening, ended up in Labodega with Red Planet, and friends for a nightcap.