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One Date, Two Destinies: A Book Release

Hello, everyone!

Happy Malaysia Day to all of you who are from Malaysia!

On another and related note, those of you who know me probably know that I am a big fan of Lee Kuan Yew. 

Well, that’s a bit of a small understatement. I mean, it would have to be for someone who was somehow so moved that he decided to write an entire book about Lee Kuan Yew, which is by the way exactly what I did. 

This Malaysia Day, 16 September, I’m very happy to announce the release of “One Date, Two Destinies: Lee Kuan Yew and the Birth of Malaysia and Singapore”, at a (Malaysia Day) discount!

Pick it up here or here:
https://victortanws.gumroad.com/l/september16th 

Also, here’s a sample that you can have a look at to preview the contents!

One-Date-Two-Destinies-Lee-Kuan-Yew-and-the-Birth-of-Malaysia-and-Singapore-SAMPLE-1Download

This was a fun project to engage in, writing about the entire track of Lee Kuan Yew’s history from his birth up until the end. 

I think it is crucial to look back at the past to understand history better, and this is one of the first things that a person will understand, I think, if they look just a little bit beneath the surface of Malaysian history and that which we call Malaysia. 

I don’t think that there is quite a project that is like this, but I think that it was an extremely fun one – It contains many of my own personal reflections about Mr. Lee and the role that he played in Malaysia and Singapore, and in our shared history together, one that was born from a time of what can rightfully be called trauma. 

I hope that you will find it meaningful and valuable for your own personal development and growth even as you reflect on these stories. 

Thank you for your support in advance if you would like to purchase the book!

Yours, 

V.

An Eternal Training

I don’t remember the last time I just thought – felt the breeze of the air conditioner pass over my skin, every oscillation after every oscillation a reminder that I was growing up in a controlled environment where things were somehow regulated and modulated, that this space that I was a part of was a part of a training, it seems, for the broader world.

The thing I’ve learned about training though is that life seems to be an unending series of trainings or exams – and how well you do in the ‘training’ determines whether you can progress to the next stage; there is no real ‘final’ moment or exam – everything is merely a preparation or a test to see if you can get onto specific paths, where again you will be tested. 

In school, you go for your first trainings – arithmetic, English, literature, history. In classrooms you sit, listening to the teacher either wax lyrical or drone (most likely drone), told that you must sit for the first term exam; after the first term, you’re told not to get complacent – the second term awaits. A succession of second terms come and go and before you know it, they’re telling you about an SPM, an SAT, a GRE, and before you know it, you are 50+, the SPM becomes PMS (if applicable), and you realize that whoops, it was all exams all the way down. 

…But that’s if you’re ~ privileged ~, as society might say.

If you’re not ~ privileged ~ in that way, surely you don’t have exams – surely you wouldn’t be tested.

But nope, life isn’t that simple. Job applications with no degree? Those are exams. They’re harder though, since you didn’t take those other exams. Marketing and sales to a random prospect? An exam. Dating? Exam. Meeting in-laws? Exam. Marriage? The ultimate exam… 

And you get to do it all over again when you have a kid and the exams continue!

Life is interesting in that way – an unending test, a continuing challenge that never really ends. 

In that sense, I think it could be easy or tempting to think about slowing down, retiring, stopping, having the challenge disappear – but I think it is rather more healthy to think that challenges are normal, and part of the basic structure of the universe; they can be arbitrarily difficult and tough, but even ‘overcoming’ any particular exam or challenge is never the end.

In a way, I feel that life is an eternal overcoming of oneself – I’ve definitely felt this to be true in recent days, whether the objective results match my aspirations or my sense of self.

The challenge is to accept that and to continue to strive, knowing that in the best of worlds, from the greatest men that history provides, that the challenges will not end – but they will only become more grand and interesting.

I Too Am Human.

When things don’t go well, I too will not be happy.

When things go well, I will take joy.

I too have emotions, I too have feelings.

I seem strong and in many ways it is fair to say that I am strong, but there are times when the cracks will form.

After all, I too am human – seeking to be anti-fragile, but not quite there yet.

I am blessed to be lifted up by the grace of the universe.