The Memoir of a Geisha. It was a good movie but I felt something was missing. The movie went too fast a pace. There was gap here and there. What attracted me to the movie was the presence of Malaysian actress in the form of Michelle Yeoh. Well, not many Malaysian made it to Hollywood. The ending was a bit artificial. So to satisfy my curiosity I have to read the novel itself.
The story was about a poor girl Chiyo who later became one of the well known geisha in Japan., Traditionally the Japanese looked at geisha as a very respectable profession. That is until after 2nd world war when the Americans, during their occupation of Japan, gave a different definition of geisha. The respectable entertainer now has become nothing more than a social escort or just an expensive call girl.
Chiyo was sold to an akio or a geisha house where she was groomed to become a geisha. The hardship she went trough make us appreciate why they surrendered themselves to become a geisha. They believed that they had an important role to play in the Japanese society at that time. As they grew older, they felt that it was their duty to train others to take their places. Chiyo was groomed by Mameha a well known geisha before the war and took the name Sayuri when she became a geisha.
Some peculiar practices by the geisha make the geisha world very unique. ‘Mizuage’ is a practice where an apprentice geisha surrendered her virginity to the highest bidder before she can become a full fledge geisha. Taking a ‘danna’ is where a geisha become a preferred mistress to a particular patron. A geisha will dress differently if she is no longer a virgin. A geisha is not supposed to fall in love, even if they do, they must hide their true feeling.
Sayuri did fall in love and toward the end find the true happiness
It was a good movie no doubt but the book was even better.

THEN..ooh!
NOW.... wow!

SUZIE QUATRO UNZIPPED.
Suzie who? I bet not many Malaysian know her. When I first learn from WWW that she had written a book about herself, I went all over town searching for it. The guys at MPH, Popular and Border never heard of her. Well I am not surprised . I fell in love with Suzie ( I mean her song) way back in 1975. That long huh! Yeah! I was sporting my shoulder length hair then and did many things that I don’t even dare to write here. In case my children may think that their dad had gone crazy. That was in Sydney, Australia.. He he he ..So many big and little secret safely tucked away down under. Fortunately I have a brother who is a pilot with our national airlines. So he bought me the book on his subsequent trip to London.

THE REVIEW.

Wait! Not so fast. I don’t expect Suzie to write after all she left school at 14 to pursue her singing career. She dropped out from school. She formed an all female band and it was quite popular in the 60s. In this book she tell all, bare all, I guess that is what she meant by ‘unzipped’. Despite owning LPs and CDs and fancying her music I never knew the kind of life she had gone through. Like her eldest sister was born out of wedlock, no big deal but her parent were from strict Italian Catholic upbringing. That was something. She was on the dope. I always thought she was cool like Marie Osmond. She admitted losing her virginity at 18. Even that was revealed in details (ha ha you want to read the book now)…since you can’t get the book here let me tease you… “we undressed, fell on to the bed and made love. It was like floating in the sea of pleasure. I wasn’t a virgin anymore……he touched my mind, my heart, possessed my soul.. and I never gave myself so completely to anyone ever again". Of course you are virgin only once, Suzy and what you do with it, is none of my concern.

The music scene was in UK at that time when the Beatles started making their mark. So off to London she went. It took her another two years before she had her first hit. That too when she almost gave up and was about to return to US, broke. That is what I called perseverance and it pays in the end.

She started her world tour. She was very popular in Australia and Japan. She is the only lady rock singer who played the bass guitar at the same time. She wrote most of her song based on what she had gone through in her life. She got married and started raising her family as a rocking mother. Even when she is on tour she took her family along. That is something that I didn’t know. How difficult that was and her marriage started to suffer. She decided to separate from the husband and raised the kid by herself. She remarried much later.

What can be learned from her is that you will succeed in life if you tried very hard. Nothing come easy in life. She is a grandmother now and still rocking away. When asked when she will put her guitar down. She replied the day when I wriggle my bum to the audience and I only hear silence. That is a long way to go man as she still looked very sexy in her leather jacket. Anyway that is coming from one her ardent fan..me.

It is a book that all Suzie Quatro fan must have, not because of sophisticated language it was written but because how simply it was written from the heart.

Tun Dr. Mahathir officiating RYLA2008
Some of the 100 participants of RYLA 2008, this is the KANCIL Team.

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is being conducted annually by Rotary District 3300. It is a leadership seminar to prepare youth to be the future leaders. This year RYLA is being hosted by Rotary Club of Melawati and take place at Nur Eco Resort located at Pangsun in Hulu Langat District.

In the space of four days these youth in the age group between 18-25 are exposed to leadership training, discussions, inspirational addresses and social activities designed to enhance personal development, leadership skill and good citizenship.

RYLA started in Australia when the state Queensland was preparing to receive Princess Alexandra for state visit in 1959. A group of youth were trained to participate in some of the activities. As the program had produced a group of outstanding youth, the Rotary movement there decided to make it an annual affairs. Since 1971 the activity had been adopted by all Rotary district world wide as a district activity.

RYLA 2008 was launch by TDM on 3rd April 08. TDM gave a talk on 'Visionary Leader'. Nothing political of course as Rotary activity always put aside politic, religion and race issues. The participants were very lucky indeed to hear personal experience of the former Prime Minister. On the final day which is Sunday 6th Apr 08 they will have another opportunity to hear from the first Malaysian Angkasawan.

Note: My daughter was one of the participant.