Published August 2009
One natural aspect of growing older is that we collect tales and stories of our lives, like pegs and scars of age. Whether they are meant to serve as life lessons to those younger than us, or as a form of common ground bonding with other like-minded individuals, there’s a reason for them somehow. “Everyone has a story that is worthy of being told,” said my mentor to me years ago. “The trick is in finding out how to do it.”
When I started blogging here in Sabah I was naive, verbally inept and felt that I generally just tried too hard to please rather than for myself. One other very important factor was that I was also lonely for blog company. There was an absence of fellow bloggers in my direct vicinity (clearly not a case now judging by the shrooming numbers on a daily basis here in Sabah alone). I honestly searched high and low, looking for a blogger I could relate to.
Fortunately for me, I was able to interact with the now-paragons of the blog community in Malaysia during what I refer to as the ‘early days’. While we had never met in person, there was a sense of solidarity. We felt as if this was something new, something special. And we didn’t want to waste the opportunity to do something different. I can now, with some measure of pride, consider bloggers like Kenny Sia (30,000 unique hits a day) and HB of Sixth Seal fame to be my compatriots of sorts.
Closer to home I finally managed to touch base with award winning photographer Louis Pang and Terri Ng of A Daily Obsession (now a dear friend and owner of the third most popular food blog in the country). My interest in individuals like Marina Mahathir and Nury Vittachi was also sparked further when I discovered the existence of their own blogs, and in a way, it endeared me to their work even more.
It was also around this time that I picked up on the buzz surrounding a lady named Yasmin Ahmad. As my well-informed friends posted online, Yasmin was fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in the film industry. Her second movie Sepet had just launched and early reviews were extremely positive.
Now please understand that this was a good couple of years ago. The notion of a Malaysian film of substance was one that took me a little while to get used to. Yes, call me judgemental but I was jaded with the industry and its offerings. Once I was able to find out a bit more about Sepet, however, I was genuinely intrigued.
Furthermore, I read an internationally recognized film critic’s two sen on Sepet, stating that he enjoyed the film’s “sincerity, truthfulness, subtle humour and a sensitive portrait of the two cultures,” It was at that point that I knew I would love it.
I also kept regular tabs on Yasmin’s blog, taking note of her progress and interest in other things with artistic touches such as pieces of music and poetry that she liked. Yasmin named her blog The Storyteller, which I personally thought was an extremely apt title.
I can still remember how I felt after watching Sepet for the first time. It had been ages since a simple little story had seriously moved me. Chinese boy meets Malay girl. They click. The dialogue was uncomplicated. It presented love in its most honest and unembarrassed state. No grandeur, no glittering facades that promise but don’t deliver. Yasmin found the right formula based on what she felt she should work with – and it was a thing of beauty. A humble tale which had many nodding in agreement that Malaysia finally had a first lady of cinema to call its own. She found the stories. She understood the concept of tales that needed to be told.
While Sepet made the rounds at international film festivals (yes, even the big ones) and Yasmin became the darling of said events and fellow directors, her humility and appreciation for life and its blessings was still clearly evident by her blog posts. It almost seemed as though many of us had finally found the person who knew how to balance it all out. She, who with a sentence or two, gently made her point in a way that resonated with all things pure and good.
This may seem a little redundant to some but I for one looked to The Storyteller for inspiration. I was undergoing massive personal and professional upheavals at that time and Yasmin’s blog made me feel just that little bit better after having read it.
Not only was it full of some seriously feel-good vibes, but as I mentioned earlier, it was an education in a way. I explored the works of Sufi poet Hafez, for example. Had I not read that he was one of Yasmin’s favourite poets, I would have carried on in this world, oblivious to the genius of a man who was able to describe love so appropriately in a ghazal that would have been written over 600 hundred years ago.
It should come as no surprise then that many mourned the recent loss of Yasmin Ahmad who passed away suddenly from massive brain haemorrhaging. It felt as if a great light had gone out, without warning or reason.
By now there must be easily hundreds if not thousands of tributes in the media and on the net to a lady who’s work carried with it strong messages of love, gratitude and humility. Always humility.
I ‘d like to include a segment from a post on The Storyteller. This would have been around the time that she first started blogging way back in 2004.
It’s entitled “Sepet – Notes From The Writer/Director” :
“ I also wanted “Sepet” to be about first love. First love has always fascinated me because it happens to you at a time when you have not yet learned to lie to yourself. With first love, within five minutes, you accept the other person for everything that they are, warts and all. I believe that our first love is the truest love of all. Unfortunately, most people I know do not even believe there is such a thing as “true love”.
They remind me of the last words in a poem by Wislawa Szymborska : Let the people who never find true love believe that there is no such thing. Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.”
Rest in peace Kak Min and goodnight Storyteller. Sleep tight.
Yasmin Ahmad
1st July 1958 – 25th July 2009
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