RIFLE RANGE BOY

Dear Thelma, Sometimes I feel that I am breathless. I can't breath. I feel that I have been forced to do what I do not want to, or rather what the society wants me to do. And I have been shortchanged! I grew up with lots of dreams and ambitions. I wanted to be somebody, away from these misery and constant tone of melancholia and sad songs that seem to be the background score of our daily life. I wanted to be free. I wanted to escape from the clutches of poverty. Since young, only X seem to understand me. Coming from a similar background, he could relate to what I felt. Only thing that he is a male and I, a female. Over time, our feelings changed, from one of empathy and understanding, it metamorphosed into something intimate. Our raging hormones which just spurred from nowhere eventually pushed us to cross the boundaries set by society. Suddenly, there was no barrier, no shame. The boundary guarded and protected all this while was now breached. Why is it that I feel so guilty...

Dear Thelma, I am a 19 year old lady with very low self esteem right now. I am writing with the hope that you may empathise with my predicament. Hopefully you can help me justify with the big action that I am going to do right now. Growing up in the interior of Sarawak, education was not a priority. Carrying on clan's tradition and continuing the women's roles in the family was paramount to the existence of our gender. As the importance of education and need for self empowerment were not impressed upon us, we were raised to believe that we were born to serve the men folks and keep the home in pristine condition and not to stress up the men of the house. Going to school, which itself was a bore, a chore and a burden to the family, I found the long journey to school on raft and foot a nuisance. Hence, I was pleasantly and naively surprised when I joined the band of girls who started vomiting in school, not due sub-optimal preparation of canteen meals but rather because of blu...

27.4.2010 Malaysian Indian, Indian Malaysian or Malaysian? Dear Thelma, I am confused. I am at a crossroads. I was born in Malaysia some almost half a century ago in a government hospital to two Malaysian parents whose parents were also born in Malaysia. My parents and grandparents contributed in their own way (albeit their low status in the rung of the social ladder) to put Malaysia on the world map so at least some Americans now know that there is not a void space between Thailand and Singapore; and Himalaya and Malaya is not interchangeable; or Malaya is not a female equivalent of He-Malaya! I started my primary education with Malaysian Language as the medium of instruction even though other countries in the region were keeping up with the Joneses and emphasized on the English Language because our leaders told us that it would unite the people and stop internal squabbling. All my subjects from Standard 1 to Upper Six were taught in Bahasa Malaysia, even though we did not have eno...