Sri Delima Rides Again

MPH Publishing's reissues of Adibah's Amin's As I Was Passing and As I Was Passing II (compilations of her column that appeared in the New Straits Times in the 70s and 80s) were launched this morning at Uncle Chilli's PJ Hilton.

I was very happy to see Amir (left) there. He's my friend and partner in picture book crime (and here we look like we're Siamese twins). He also ilustrated the new covers for As I Was Passing.

This (right) is Gim Ean, my best friend at the Star.

Here I am (left), being an author-groupie.

And this (right) is Eric Forbes, my editor at MPH Publishing.

StarMag

1st April 2007

She’s passing our way again!

By DAPHNE LEE

A well-loved writer’s books are re-issued by  a fan who happens to be a publishing editor.

The books are compilations of Adibah’s eponymous column that ran in the New Straits Times (NST) in the 1970s and 1980s. They were first published in 1976 and 1978, respectively, by Berita Publishing, but languished in out-of-print limbo until MPH Publishing editor Eric Forbes decided that it was time for them to be re-issued.

The column Adibah Amin worked so hard at that she used to cry over it will delight a new generation of readers with the re-issue of two compilations.

“I felt that it was a shame to waste them,” says Forbes. “They were extremely popular and relevant, and I believe are still relevant.”

Adibah is still “walking on air” at the thought of her columns being re-issued.

She says, “Eric called me a few months before the launch of my (first) novel, This End of the Rainbow. He said that he had read the column when he was a teenager and liked it very much. And that he was sure that if the books were re-issued, teenagers would love it.”

As Adibah retained copyright to the columns, first published under her pseudonym Sri Delima, there was nothing barring re-packaging and re-publishing the books.

“I looked through all the stories,” says Adibah, “but Eric went through them all again. He is meticulous and thorough and I’m sure he improved on spelling and corrected the many typos!”

The articles that appear in the book span about six years worth of the As I Was Passing column, but they have not been published with the original date they first appeared (in NST).

“Even the first time around, the columns were chosen in quite a haphazard way. I don’t even remember exactly when each one came out,” says Adibah. 

Forbes says he preferred to leave out the information, as he did not want to date Adibah’s work. He need not have worried as these elegantly written vignettes of Malaysian life remain as fresh, unpretentious and readable as the day they first appeared.

It’s hard to believe that Adibah sometimes cried over her column!

“It was so hard trying to decide what to write about,” she recalls. “At one point, it appeared twice a week and that made it even harder to find new topics. Lat used to wander around NST, searching for inspiration for his cartoons. And I too became a wanderer, in search of ideas.”

She says that she doesn’t rule out writing another column, but, “It’s a great responsibility and not what I want in my life right now. But who knows, maybe in 10 years’ time I will be ready!”

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