SHE

Year 2016 is coming to end. One of the best thing happened to me is one of my short stories She from my book Bitter  has been turned into a short film. Thank you James Lee for liking my short story and turning it into a short film. And big thank you to the actors for giving a very emotional performances. I am sharing some of the stills from She 

If you want to watch the video of this short film you can do so as below 

Bitter in Press

 I am highlighting all the media reports ( the good, the bad and the ugly) on my book Bitter. Whether they are good or bad reviews, I really appreciate  the journalist effort to read Bitter and to dissect it.  A big  thank you to them. 

1)  The first person who wrote about  Bitter is the  well known Uthaya Sankar. His article appeared in the website Kuala Lumpur Post . Below is the full article 

Title : Bissme Teroka Sisi Lain Kehidupan Manusia 

Kemampuan menghasilkan buku fiskyen sulung pada usia 45 tahun pasti suatu kejayaan yang membanggakan. Bayangkan pula jika mampu melahirkan buku fiksyen kedua dalam masa hampir dua tahun selepas itu.

Itulah yang berjaya dilakukan oleh Bissme S, seorang wartawan yang berpengalaman luas serta menang beberapa anugerah dalam bidang kewartawanan.

Seperti diakuinya sendiri, dunia kewartawanan menuntut dirinya berdepan dengan fakta dan objektiviti, manakala penulisan fiksyen membuka ruang seluas-luasnya untuk mengembangkan daya imaginasi dan kreativiti.

Saya berpeluang bertemu dengan Bissme pada 2 Februari 2015 di Pesta Buku Selangor yang berlangsung di Pusat Konvensyen Shah Alam (SACC). Kebetulan, buku keduanya, Bitter (2015) baru sahaja siap dicetak dan mula dijual.

Mahu tidak mahu, sebagai penulis dan pencinta bahasa serta individu yang berpengalaman dalam bidang penyuntingan, saya secara spontan membelek-belek halaman buku baru ini untuk meneliti kualiti bahasa dan ejaan.

Harus diakui bahawa berbanding buku pertama, Doubt (2013) yang dipenuhi pelbagai kesalahan bahasa dan kesilapan menaip, koleksi fiskyen terbaru ini lebih kemas, bersih dan profesional.

Bissme ternyata mengambil kira komen saya sekitar dua tahun lalu dan memastikan ada orang menyemak, menyunting dan memperkemaskan manuskripnya sebelum diterbitkan.

Sebagai seorang editor akhbar yang berpengalaman, N. Shashi Kala telah melaksanakan tugasnya dengan amat baik bagi memastikan Bitter yang disajikan kepada khalayak lebih kemas dan bebas daripada kecuaian bahasa.

Bagi Bissme, pengalaman menghasilkan sejumlah 13 cerpen dalam koleksi ini agak berbeza dengan cerpen-cerpen dalam koleksi sulung dahulu. Fiksyen kali ini lebih panjang dan standard berbanding koleksi pertama yang agak bercelaru dari segi panjang setiap cerita.

Suatu lagi perbezaan yang ketara adalah bahawa semasa menulis fiksyen sebelum ini, pengarang belum memutuskan untuk membukukannya. Pada kali ini pula, kesemua cerpen ditulis khusus untuk dibukukan.

*Fiksyen Yang Tidak Sesuai Bagi Pembaca Kanak-kanak

Bissme mengakui bahawa memang ada semacam kekangan dan kesedaran nyata kerana cerpen-cerpen pada kali ini mahu diterbitkan dalam bentu buku. Tambahan pula, kebanyakan pembaca Bitterkemungkinan besar sudah membaca Doubt.

Secara logik, khalayak pasti mengharapkan sesuatu yang lebih baik daripada karya terdahulu. Pada saya, Bissme berjaya memenuhi tuntutan itu. Kerja-kerja penyuntingan yang kemas merupakan satu lagi bonus yang mampu membantu pembaca (khususnya bukan penutur lazim) mempelajari penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris yang betul.

Pembaca perlu diberikan amaran bahawa sebagaimana Doubt, koleksi fiksyen dalam Bitter juga tidak sesuai bagi kanak-kanak. Hal ini kerana kisah, persoalan dan peristiwa yang disajikan boleh dikategorikan sebagai berciri ganas dan ada aksi agak “terlampau”.

Kisah-kisah yang disajikan mungkin kelihatan seperti cerita biasa. Akan tetapi, “kebiasaan” itu segera berubah menjadi sesuatu yang benar-benar di luar dugaan dan norma kehidupan.

Maka, fiksyen yang dihasilkan oleh Bissme hanya sesuai bagi khalayak yang khusus, iaitu khalayak yang sedia untuk melihat sisi lain kehidupan manusia yang biasanya dielakkan daripada dibicarakan menerusi karya arus perdana.

Mungkin ada pihak yang berpendapat bahawa kisah-kisah seperti ini “selamat” selagi tidak disampaikan dalam Bahasa Malaysia. Pandangan ini agak menarik kerana memang ada buku terjemahan Bahasa Malaysia diharamkan di Malaysia, tetapi versi asal (Bahasa Inggeris) boleh dibeli dan dibaca secara bebas dan terbuka.

Menurut Bissme, buku Doubt sedang dalam proses terjemahan dan versi Bahasa Malaysia akan berada dalam pasaran tidak lama lagi. Ini mungkin berita baik bagi mereka yang mahu menikmati kisah-kisah yang disajikan oleh Bissme.

“Selepas Doubt terbit, saya tidak pernah menyangka akan ada buku lain. Namun, kini Bitter sudah muncul dan saya harap ia mendapat perhatian khalayak pembaca.

“Kisah-kisah yang saya angkat memang lari daripada kebiasaan walaupun ia menampilkan watak-watak biasa yang kita temui dalam kehidupan seharian. Mungkin itulah daya penarik bagi buku-buku saya,” kata Bissme yang merupakan anak jati Kuala Lumpur.

Sebagai seorang penulis dan wartawan berpengalaman, beliau sedar bahawa setiap hasil tulisan – fiksyen mahu pun berita atau rencana – pasti mendapat komen yang pelbagai daripada pembaca.

* Adunan Realiti, Imaginasi dan Kreativiti Seorang Wartawan

Saya kagum dengan sikap terbuka yang menjadi pegangan Bissme. Katanya, sama ada reaksi yang diberikan oleh pembaca dan pengkritik adalah positif atau negati, kedua-duanya amat berguna kepadanya.

Sikap positif seperti ini wajar menjadi amalan semua orang dalam segala bidang. Biarlah kita menerima komen positif dan negatif dengan hati terbuka demi membaiki diri dan mutu kerja.

Kesemua cerpen dalam buku ini ditulis pada tahun lalu khusus untuk diterbitkan dalam bentuk buku. Maknanya, cerpen-cerpen ini belum pernah disiarkan di mana-mana.

Secara penuh sedar, Bissme memastikan kesalahan bahasa dan kecuaian yang terdapat pada buku pertama tidak diulang dalam buku kedua. Penyuntingan profesional yang dilakukan oleh editor berpengalaman juga sangat membantu.

Proses kreatif bagi seorang pengarang adalah semacam misteri. Orang ramai sering tertanya-tanya dari mana penulis mendapat idea bagi cerita. Sebagai seorang penulis, saya juga sering diajukan soalan itu dan biasanya saya tidak mampu memberikan jawapan yang paling tepat dan memuaskan.

Begitulah juga halnya dengan Bissme. Watak serta kisah yang disajikannya dalam Doubt dan Bitter adalah sesungguhnya manusia yang biasa ditemui dalam kehidupan seharian, khususnya di ibu negara.

Apa yang berbeza adalah bahawa Bissme yang kini berusia 47 tahun menggunakan daya kreativiti dan imaginasi untuk membayangkan kemungkinan yang amat berbeza dalam kehidupan setiap watak manusia biasa itu.

Kreativiti seperti ini sangat perlu ada pada mana-mana penulis kreatif. Sebagai seorang wartawan berpengalaman, kini Bissme berjaya pula mengembangkan daya kreativiti dan imaginasi dalam diri untuk memanfaatkan bahan dan idea cerita untuk disajikan dalam bentuk fiksyen yang seronok dan mendebarkan untuk dibaca.

Sepanjang saya mengenali Bissme, dia seorang yang pemalu dan kurang bercakap. Mungkin tugasnya sebagai wartawan memerlukannya untuk lebih banyak mendengar daripada bercakap. Bagaimanapun, kini dia sudah menemui “suara”nya menerusi penulisan fiskyen.

Kisah dan pengalaman Bissme boleh dijadikan panduan oleh orang ramai supaya tidak berputus asa dalam mencapai impian dan cita-cita. Bermula dengan keinginan untuk mahu berkongsi cerita, Bissme kini sudah berjaya menjadi seorang penulis yang berjaya.

* Uthaya Sankar SB adalah presiden Kumpulan Sasterawan Kavyan (Kavyan), perunding media dan penulis sepenuh masa. Hubungi uthayasb@yahoo.com.my untuk cadangan cerita menarik

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2) Amir Hafizi from Malaysian Reserve has reviewed my book Bitter .  Here is the full review 

Title : From Doubt to Bitterness 

By Amir Hafizi 

After his first book “Doubt”, author Bissme S returns with another clutch of stories — this time, Bissme focuses on even darker themes that plunge readers into a bottomless pit of despair.
This book is a downer, in a good way. Reminiscent of Oscar Wilde’s dour, heartbreaking and haunting short stories, Bissme’s “Bitter” manages to consistently capture that dark, depressing landscape in 13 stories.
There are stories of mothers becoming prostitutes and one hired to see out the death of her husband, tale of a family forever affected by the suicide of a father, how a boy is raped and the family copes, a mother tasting the flesh of her own children and many more.
Of note are the stories “Breakfast in Bed” and “All About My Mother”.
“Breakfast in Bed” is about a family obsessed with the image of the father hanging himself in his bedroom after his wife left him. “All About My Mother” is a story about a serial curse of prostitution borne out of bitterness. In it, a man would curse random beautiful mothers to a life of prostitution. The children of the mother who becomes a prostitute would one day recite the same line — almost an incantation — to another mother and the cycle begins anew.
These stories are almost fable-like in nature, their darkness a result of semi-magical happenings or the borderline fantastic.
However, the horrors are very much grounded in reality and the violence is believable while being a bit surreal. The motivations of some of the characters that instigate the weird and cruel happenings are almost like a dark version of paying it forward, or vectors spreading a virus of bitterness.
Another running theme is that the stories are often written from the point of view of the son, witnessing the real horrors of family. In some stories, the focus shifts to other types of characters, which makes for a varied reading.
The effect is that the book creates a haunting experience and readers can find themselves strangely cathartic after going through all the spite, hatred, abuse and violence in “Bitter”. It is certainly over the top and can get a bit cartoonish at times, such as one story where a mother is fed the flesh of her child, or when a man discovers he is a product of incest.
However, when the story is over, one can find a bit of relief that the world is not that dark and hopefully it is only so in the minds of the author.
Bissme writes his short stories well, perhaps fully realising that tales with such strong flavours should be short and not be drawn out too much. He effortlessly darts from one dark and depressing setup to another, from one crazy character to the next one with seeming ease.
Bitter” is only around 130 pages so even if the content is not agree-able to those with more delicate sensibilities, it is short.

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3) The Star has  featured my book Bitter as well as my first book Doubt in their paper on April 26. 

  
    

Title : Monstrously Twisted Tales 
By Daphne Lee 

Betrayal and revenge are the main themes explored in two short story collections by long-time journalist Bissme (who goes by one name).

These relentlessly miserable, casually violent tales of mean-spirited, ill-fated characters hell-bent on destruction of one kind or other are obviously meant to shock, but the outrageous details and denouements lose most of their kick from being repeated like clockwork.

Halfway through Doubt (published in 2013), the gristly, gory details, the small-minded petty axe-grinding ceases to make you gasp. You simply end up groaning, “No, not again!”

It’s the same with the recently-published Bitter. How many of the characters strip naked and walk into the sea? Just a couple, perhaps, but in a collection, that’s still one too many.

Also, what’s with every female character being called Malena? On encountering Malena the second time, I perked up because I rather like it when the same character pops up in several short stories. However, it turns out that the Malenas in Bitter are each a different person. What is the point of this? Is there even one? If so, I don’t get it. It just seems to me that the author couldn’t be bothered to think of different names.

Come to think of it, most of Bissme’s characters are nameless. I don’t see this as a problem, though, because in many cases, the premise of the story is original and powerful enough to render names unimportant. It’s the circumstances the characters find themselves in that are interesting, not the characters themselves. Unfortunately, the characters invariably end up acting predictably, just like the ones in the previous story, and the story before that.

It’s a shame, because Bissme is an engaging storyteller. His voice is emphatic, spontaneous, and defiant, somewhat flippant too.

The tone is just right for the shocking situations he describes. It’s like he’s daring the reader to protest; it’s like he’s laughing at your disbelief. “Up yours!” he seems to be saying. “You think this is bad? Just you wait!”

The thing is, while it does get worse – people behave increasingly monstrously, things get really twisted – it’s always the same kind of monsters and the same kind of twisted.

There needs to be more variety in the stories. The author needs to look more closely at what he starts, and think harder about the way things could develop. The possibilities are endless, but the way they repeat themselves in these two collections makes me think that the author is not making enough of an effort. He has a way to go as a writer, I feel, and I am excited to see him develop and grow.

Of course, Bissme has to want to reach his full potential. It’s really up to him to be the best writer he can be, and I hope his next collection shows him shining in ways that I believe he is fully capable of.

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4)  Kosmo also highlighted Bitter in their paper on April 1.  I do not have any soft copy of the paper. Anyone has the soft copy of the paper can they pass the copy to me.   

More on Bitter

My Book Bitter is currently selling at Pesta Buku Selangor that is taking place in Shah Alam Convention Centre. Bitter features 13 stories from me and I am highlighting few snippets from my short stories. Enjoy. 

1) All About My Mother 
By Bissme S

“You are too beautiful to belong to one man.
You should become a prostitute.”

The first time I heard those words, I was only thirteen.I was having a dinner with my parents in a restaurant. A tall man in a blue jacket sat at the table next to us.The tall man in the blue jacket had been staring at my mother from the moment we entered the restaurant. When we finished our dinner, the tall man in the blue jacket stood up and approached our table. Looking at my mother, he said: “You are too beautiful to belong to one man. You should become a prostitute.”
There was complete silence at our table. None of us knew what to say to him. We just stared at him.The man in the blue jacket had big smile on his face. 
Slowly, he turned around and walked out of the restaurant, laughing loudly.
After the strange incident in the restaurant, our lives were never the same again. My mother stopped being a wife. My mother stopped being a mother. My mother abandoned us. My mother became a prostitute.
****

“Nobody loves her the way I love her. My love will bring her back,” my father said.
My father worshiped the ground that my mother walked on. My father said: “She was my first love and I was her first love. Nobody forgets their first love. Your mother will come home. She will become a better mother to you and a better wife to me.”
My father became a religious man. Every day, he begged the son of God to bring back the woman he loves into his life again. In the past,my father believed all religions was manmade.
“Jesus is Santa Claus for adults,” he used to say.
He loved making fun of God, Jesus and religious people in general.
Not anymore. He said: “God has been kind to me. God blessed my life with so much happiness and love. But I was ungrateful. I abandoned
God. I made jokes out of him. And God punished me. God made my wife abandon me. God wanted me to feel the pain that God felt when I abandoned Him.But now I am repenting my sins. One day, God will forgive me. God will make your mother stand in front of our doorstep with her two suitcases, begging for forgiveness.I will forgive her the same way God had forgiven me. We will be one happy family again.”
My father has no doubt that God will give him a happy ending. As for me, I am totally convinced that God is obsessed with sad endings... ( to know more a grab a copy of Bitter) 
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2) The Woman I Love 
By Bissme S

“Why did you kill her?” I asked.
“Because I want our love story to have a happy ending,” Malena
answered.
Slowly, Malena walked towards me and kissed me passionately.
Malena unbuttoned my shirt and kissed my chest. Malena unbuckled my belt and put her hands into my pants. I melted. Soon, we were on the floor fucking each other’s brains out, in front of a dead body.
Exhausted, I slept off on the floor where we had made love. When I woke up the next morning, the body was missing. Malena entered the room with two coffee mugs in her hands.
Placing one of the mugs in my hand, Malena said:”Drink up your coffee before it becomes cold.”
“What happened to....” but before I could finish my sentence,
Malena answered: “I have taken care of everything while you were sleeping. All you need to do is to make a police report.”
Like Malena had instructed, I went to the police station. I told
them that my wife was missing and I could not find her anywhere.

*****
A few days later, a letter arrived for me. It was from my wife. She no longer loves me...Our marriage was making her miserable…She felt like a bird in a cage that was crying for freedom…She had found a man who brought joy into her miserable life…She wants to spend the rest of her life in his arms.
My wife wrote: “Forget that I existed in your life. Forget that our marriage existed. When I married you, I really believed you will be the first and last man that I loved. Perhaps we are not meant to love one person for the rest of our lives.”
I showed the letter to the police. I showed it to my friends and to her friends. To my relatives and to hers as well.
“My wife is not missing,” I said.
“She had abandoned me.”
They believed the lie that was written in the letter. My wife did
not write a single word in the letter. It was Malena who composed the letter. ( To know more about the story Grab a copy of Bitter)
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3) Bitter 
By Bissme S

The first time I saw him was at the cafe that my parents run. It
was raining cats and dogs. A photographer from a big city, he was cold, hungry and looking for some warm food to eat. He told us he wanted to shoot our small beautiful village. He wanted to featurethese photos in some travel magazine.
“Can I find a hotel here?” he asked.
There was no hotel in our village. Out of kindness, my parents
offered our guestroom to the stranger. But my parents soon learned a bitter lesson that kindness is not always rewarded with kindness.

****
Four days later, the stranger disappeared. But he did not leave
our house empty-handed. The stranger abducted me. My mother screamed when she learned that I was missing. The doctor had to give her a sedative to calm her down. My mother spent her days in bed, feeling dizzy and depressed. My father had a high hopes my tragedy would have a happy ending – that I would be found and he would soon be hugging me.
But my father had forgotten that sometimes God loves sad endings.
My kidnapper was nowhere to be found and I was no longer
breathing. The police found my body, brutally raped and badly
burned.

****
I was only 13 when my life ended tragically. I have become a
ghost, wandering in the house that I grew up in and hanging around my parents who love me with all their heart.
My parents cannot see me. My parents cannot hear me. But I
can see their agony. I can hear their cries of misery. I can feel their unspoken sadness.
“It is a norm for a child to bury his parents,” my mother said.
“But when the situation is reversed – when parents have to burytheir child – the pain can be unbearable.”
My mother had lost faith in God. She stopped going to church.
Our regular priest, Father Danny Fratine, visited our home. He
wanted to convince my mother to return to the church.
“I cannot pray to a God who had taken away my only child,” my mother shouted.
“There is no place for God in my heart any more. I wish God
burns in hell.”
My mother took the broom and literarily chased away Father
Danny Fratine from our house.
“God is my enemy,” my mother shouted.
“If you love God, then you are my enemy, too. And my enemies
are not welcome in my house. ”
My mother had become a bitter woman who constantly cursed
God and anyone who loved God.

*****
My father was in far worse condition than my mother.
“The police had made a mistake” my father said.
“The dead body they found is not my daughter’s. They just want to close the case as soon as possible. They don’t care about justice.
“I have done my research. Most paedophiles are not killers. He
raped my daughter and most probably, he would have sold her to some brothel. He is not heartless to kill my sweet Malena.”
One morning, my mother and I could not find my father anywhere in the house. There was a letter from him waiting for my mother on our dining table. My father had gone to the big city to find me, the daughter he loved and adored.
“I will only come back after I find our daughter,” my father wrote.... ( to know more grab a copy of Bitter) 
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Promoting Bitter

Bitter, my new book under Merpati Jingga features a collection of  my stories. My publisher, Faisal Mustaffa informs me that Bitter 
is currently selling  at the Pesta Buku Selangor at Pusat 
Konvensyen SACC Shah Alam, Selangor Malaysia from now till Feb 8 ( this weekend)... To promote my book, I will be showcasing a snippet from one of the stories that is featured in Bitter. 


All About My Mother 
By Bissme S

“You are too beautiful to belong to one man.You should become a  prostitute.”

The first time I heard those words, I was only thirteen.I was  having a dinner with my parents in a restaurant. A tall man in a blue jacket sat at the table next to us.The tall man in the blue jacket had been staring at my mother from the moment we entered the restaurant. 
When we finished our dinner, the tall man in the blue jacket stood up and approached our table. Looking at my mother, he said: “You are too beautiful to belong to one man. You should become a prostitute.”
There was complete silence at our table. None of us knew what to say to him. We just stared at him.
The man in the blue jacket had big smile on his face. Slowly, he
turned around and walked out of the restaurant, laughing loudly.
After the strange incident in the restaurant, our lives were never the same again. My mother stopped being a wife. My mother stopped being a mother. My mother abandoned us. My mother became a prostitute....... to read more, grab a copy of Bitter 

25 Quotes From Bitter

My publisher Merpati Jingga has done their job - publishing my book, Bitter. Now it is my job to promote the book Bitter. So I am highlighting 25 quotes from my book Bitter. Currently, my book Bitter is selling at Pesta Buku Selangor, till February 8. Grab a copy of Bitter at Rm 21. Enjoy these quotes.  

1) We are not meant to love one person for the rest of our lives.

2) It is not every day you get a chance to paint a man who hanged himself.

3) Some people will see what I have done as cruel and utterly mad.But most people don’t understand that every great art must have a touch of cruelty and madness.

4) Tragedies have shaped some of the best artists in
the world. You should make good use of your tragedy.

5) I was depressed. I missed my husband. I missed my friends. I
wanted to kill myself. But killing yourself is not easy. You need tremendous strength to end your life

6) Give a man a fish and you will feed him a day but give him religion and he will starve to death while praying for a fish

7) Save your tears, Madam. This is only the beginning of your tragedy. You have more tears to shed.

8) She should understand nobody should be put on the pedestal of perfection. Not even God.

9) You are too beautiful to belong to one man. You should become a prostitute.

10) I learned that there are some enemies you cannot defeat in fairness. You have to stab their back

11) When you have no friends, you must have books to keep you company.

12) Never underestimate anyone. Everyone has the potential to be a vicious murderer, including your own mother.

13) I always tell the truth even when I lie.

14) Why are you so obsessed with the truth? My darling, the truth is overrated. The truth is not important

15) Slowly, I was beginning to hate the woman I love. What do you do when you hate the woman you love?

16) It is a job of every son to make his father happy.

17) I told you that the Devil will not let us down.

18) I should have known there are some mothers you cannot trust.

19) My parents soon learned a bitter lesson that kindness is not always rewarded with kindness.

20) God is my enemy. If you love God, then you are my enemy, too. And my enemies are not welcome in my house.

21) They saw what they wanted to see. They heard what they wanted to hear. They smelt what they wanted to smell. They believed what they wanted to believe. The bitter truth was not important to them.

22) Madness is necessary when you cannot handle the truth.

23) We could have been happy. Why did you choose sadness?

24) Sometimes, to be truly happy, one needs to be a little selfish.

25) She taught me what love is. After her, I cannot bring myself to love anyone else. Love begins and ends with her.

BITTER

Bitter, my new book publish under Merpati Jingga features a collection of  my short stories. My publisher, Faisal Mustaffa informs me that Bitter will be a selling  at the Pesta Buku Selangor at Pusat Konvensyen SACC Shah Alam, Selangor Malaysia from Friday January 30 to Feb 8... To promote my book, I will be showcasing a snippet from one of the stories that is featured in Bitter. 

1) Breakfast in Bed 
By Bissme S

My father used every trick in the book to save his marriage, from tears to begging. But he failed miserably. 

“We are not meant to love one person for the rest of our lives,” my mother said. 

Carrying only her handbag, my mother walked out of our house, to a waiting car. The driver of the car was a young man clad in a yellow T-shirt. He was my mother’s new lover. As soon as my mother got into the car, the young mandrove away quickly. My mother did not look back. My father, meanwhile, locked himself in his bedroom. 

I said: “Father, please open the door. In times like this, we should be together. You can always talk to me.” 

My father answered: “For now, I want to be alone in my sadness. I want to grieve in peace.We can talk tomorrow. We can have breakfast together.”

The next morning, I entered my father’s room with a tray of toasted bread, two half boiled eggs and a cup of coffee. I wanted to surprise my father. I wanted my father to have breakfast in bed.

But the tray did not reach my father’s bed. I dropped it on the floor. My father had hanged himself. Tears streamed from my eyes. 

"Do not call the police yet, Malena," my sister said.

My sister took an empty canvas and started painting my dad. 

“It is not every day you get a chance to paint a man who hanged himself,” my sister said.  

I was speechless. I did not know to how to react to what was happening infront of my eyes. My mother has just abandoned my father for her young lover, my father had just killed himself, and my sister was calmly painting him hanging from the ceiling. I felt as if I was in a surrealistic movie which had no head or 
tail.After two hours, my sister had completed her task.

“Now, you can call the police,” she said. 
“Some people will see what I have done as cruel and utterly mad. But most people don’t understand that every great art must have a touch of cruelty and madness.” ......

( To read the rest of the story please get my book Bitter at Pesta Buku Selangor....)