Early Reading History..

Since I was a school boy until now, I am not the type of ‘reading’ kid. I only read for ‘survival’. Thus, I only read when exam is just around the corner. I rarely read books even for pleasure. It will make me tired and I ill fall asleep. The only two books, if they can be categorized as books, are Doraemon and Shin Chan. I would rather read these books starting dawn till dusk than to do anything else. Sometimes, I do go to the library but seldom read the books there. I often study there with my friends. However, I remember this one book (novel) that was made compulsory to read as a literature component when I was in Form 1. The name of the novel was ‘Aku Anak Timur’ written by Siti Aminah Haji Yusof. This novel also had won the first prize in the ‘Competition of Writing Journey Novel’ this novel was written in 1980’s.

The novel was a bout a girl, Zarina who followed her mother during school holidays to visit her father who was studying in Leiden University, Netherland. When she reached there, she was at first rather shock with the lifestyle of the Western people. However, she realized that their way of lifestyles were different due to their differences in cultures. Later, she met a guy, Niek Van Hoeve who was then introduced her to his friends. She then became influenced by her new friends and this made her parents worry. Everything changed when she was almost being raped by one of her new friends that she just met at the party. After the incident, she realized why her parents disobeyed her all this while and how far the Western people had gone in respecting others.

I like this novel because it showed the patriotism spirit that the main character, Zarina had. Apart from that, the writer also had shown to me how beautiful the scenery along the journey besides how wonderful the experience that the family had. It was narrated well and I believe all the readers could imagine the real situation happened in the story. It also taught me the new language which, language of the Holland people. Zarina in one scene of the story became mad because the people there did not know where Malaysia is. I still remember how weird I felt when I first read about it. Soon, I became proud as people from all around the world have known Malaysia now.

As a person who never experienced staying at overseas, the novel was like ‘an imaginary place’ that I had been. It really ‘brought’ me there. Since the novel was written in1980’s, when I first read the story in 2000, I did wonder if the perception of the Western people towards Malaysia had changed. As I stated above, in the story, Zarina became mad when the people there did not Malaysia and yet they knew Indonesia better. I do hope that now, the new generation know Malaysia better since we are more advanced and developed better than Indonesia.