The Malaysian Insider

FEB 5 — The pig heads left at two mosques last week in Petaling Jaya were a blatant and tasteless attempt to provoke the Malay community. So far the Malays have collectively taken the high road, resisting the temptation to respond in kind.

Let’s hope, not just for Malaysia’s but the Malays’ sake, the trend continues. This would help redeem the community’s image, which took a blow after the recent church attacks. It would also reaffirm the Malay value of restraint, which has been challenged over the years amid a messy socio-political and racio-religious landscape and geopolitical tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims.

NOV 20 — Khalwat and durians are a steady presence in my new short story collection, "Velvet and Cinder Blocks." In one story, a KL taxi driver recalls an overbearing father who threw durians at him as a form of punishment, or sometimes just for the heck of it.

Elsewhere a chef-turned-journalist-turned-chef again invents a durian-based fish-head curry that wows the critics. In a draft of the closing novella, “The Guesthouse”, a young Malay woman and expat bond alone over a durian in the jungle.