The Rice Mother (2004)
Author: Rani Manicka
History is written by victors said Walter Benjamin. History is a set of lies that people have agreed upon according to Napoleon Bonaparte. History will be kind to me as I intend to write it, asserted Winston Churchill. These statements just show us how the real narration, the truth can and will be manipulated by the people in power to set forth their personal agendas.
Author: Rani Manicka
History is written by victors said Walter Benjamin. History is a set of lies that people have agreed upon according to Napoleon Bonaparte. History will be kind to me as I intend to write it, asserted Winston Churchill. These statements just show us how the real narration, the truth can and will be manipulated by the people in power to set forth their personal agendas.
Of late, in Malaysia, there is a concerted effort to erase the contributions of particular communities in the development of the country. History is altered and churned out as they like as if it is a fictional writing to bring out a happy ending that suits the flavour of the month. Like the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984, they churn out lies after lies to suit their game plan. They know well that one who controls the past controls the future and he who controls the present controls the past.
Talk to any Malaysian family. They all have a tale to tell about the predicaments that their forefathers had to endure to protect their piece of space which they called home. They have stories of pain, tears, sweat, blood, heartaches, deaths and disappointments as they toiled the sun to see their produce. Learn how they forwent happiness and comfort to chase invaders from the land they looked up as home, not purely as the piece of land where they would squander its wealth to syphon off to lands far away. Stories like 'Rice Mother' are far too many but remain closed in the eternal vault of their family bygones and hidden in memory banks as kindred treasures.
The novel narrates the tale of a young girl who was plucked from the tranquil land of Ceylon to be married off to a wealthy man from Malaya in the 1930s. Only after reaching Malaya did she realise that the whole arrangement was a facade. There was no rich husband and life was far from perfect. Being a subservient wife, in keeping with the times, she carried on. Life was never a bed of roses. The unhappy marriage did produce a succession of heirs. The seeming quiet country went through some tumultuous times, fighting foreign invaders and surviving the world war.
The book goes on to tell the life and times of Lakshmi, the protagonist, who later metamorphosed into a fierce matriarch; the husband and his meek ways of handling adversities; their children and their escapades and idiosyncrasies all though to Lakshmi's grandchildren as the country, Malaysia, transforms to meet the challenges of the new world.
N.B. Rice Mother refers to the scarecrow who stands steadfast unflinching against the elements of Nature to safeguard the dependent she is assigned to care. In the same vein, the matriarchal figure in the story stands firm to be a pillar to the family to ensure that everyone in the family, the father and the children, come ashore the journey of life safe and sound. The Rice Mother, slowly but surely, in the background, looks like hawk, stinges like an ant and brings the gifts like Santa Claus when the time is ripe or it demands!
The novel narrates the tale of a young girl who was plucked from the tranquil land of Ceylon to be married off to a wealthy man from Malaya in the 1930s. Only after reaching Malaya did she realise that the whole arrangement was a facade. There was no rich husband and life was far from perfect. Being a subservient wife, in keeping with the times, she carried on. Life was never a bed of roses. The unhappy marriage did produce a succession of heirs. The seeming quiet country went through some tumultuous times, fighting foreign invaders and surviving the world war.
The book goes on to tell the life and times of Lakshmi, the protagonist, who later metamorphosed into a fierce matriarch; the husband and his meek ways of handling adversities; their children and their escapades and idiosyncrasies all though to Lakshmi's grandchildren as the country, Malaysia, transforms to meet the challenges of the new world.
N.B. Rice Mother refers to the scarecrow who stands steadfast unflinching against the elements of Nature to safeguard the dependent she is assigned to care. In the same vein, the matriarchal figure in the story stands firm to be a pillar to the family to ensure that everyone in the family, the father and the children, come ashore the journey of life safe and sound. The Rice Mother, slowly but surely, in the background, looks like hawk, stinges like an ant and brings the gifts like Santa Claus when the time is ripe or it demands!
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