Mahani Zubedy
(Illustration courtesy of esplanade.com) When I was a kid, my mother often resorted to emotional blackmail. She had a stockpile, her all-time favorite was the story: The Rock That Swallows Mothers. Once there was a huge rock on the side of a mountain, in the middle of...
Mahani Zubedy
I grew up in Malaysia and spoke Malay, an island language related to Hawaiian. Malaysia was a British colony and became independent in 1957. Everyone born before 1957, I was born in 56,’ went to British schools. We were on the equator, 90 degrees all day, every day,...
Mahani Zubedy
(image courtesy of Vintage Everyday) When my mother discovered my father had another woman, her world ended and she howled and cried. A shaman was called. The shaman burned frankincense and bitter-sweet acrid smoke filled the house. She sprinkled rose petals and...
Mahani Zubedy
My brother Jo was circumcised at home when he was nine. I was thirteen. It was not unusual for three- to five-year-old boys to be circumcised at home in the 60’s in Malaysia. But to wait till your child was nine was almost irresponsible, and maybe even dangerous....
Mahani Zubedy
(some language may be off-putting) In the 30s my father’s father built two houses at the edge of town. He lived in one and rented the other. By the 60s, the houses were in the middle of town and the mile-long street was a bustling hodgepodge of enterprises and homes....
Mahani Zubedy
Allaaah, hoo-akhbar Allah, hoo-akhbar Allaaah, hoo-akhbar. Laaaa illah, ha-ill- lallaah, hoo-wallah, hoo-akbar Allaah, hoowalah walillah, ill-hamd I grew to hate all things religion but the Eid adhan, the call to Eid prayer endured for many years. With its...
The Rock That Swallows Mothers(Illustration courtesy of esplanade.com) When I was a […]
Constantly by Cliff Richard or How I Learned English
Bucktooth(image courtesy of Vintage Everyday) When my mother […]
Chapter 4. Challenges and CelebrationsThose times were BP, Before Penicillin, and there were a number of serious childhood illnesses, which were expected for most children, like rites of passage. I only know from being told that my first severe illness, which had to have included some pain, was a kidney infection when I was just a baby. I don’t know how this was treated, but the after-effects would follow me into my teens due to my mother’s lifelong concern for my plumbing […]
Chapter 3. Coping With Change1943 – The shelves in German stores may have […]