A few nights ago Luciano called me from Rome to wish me Happy New Year. We had a nice, long conversation and ultimately the subject his dog came up! And we have had that conversation umpteenth time before! Luciano wants to visit me but just could not leave his dog behind! And again I would argue why he let a dog hold his freedom to travel to to ransom? And he would give me the same answer, ‘ ma tu non hai un cane, allora tu non lo sai ... ( but you don’t have a dog, so you don’t know!)”
Va bene, va bene! Mamma mia, MAMMA MIA....
I have known Luciano for over 25 years and though we do not see each other often, whenever me do it is always with the greatest warmth and friendship. He is one of the better English-speaking Italians I know and we could talk about everything under the sun. Of course we must talk about his unfinished Constable-inspired painting that he had been working on for years but yet to complete! And always have great laughs together. This time we were laughing about Italian national TV stations' penchant for endlessly broadcasting silly and purely-entertainment programmes featuring the compulsory skimpily-clad young women! Dosen't the Pope say anything!
My conversation with Luciano inspired me to look up a short story I wrote in 1990 about a Malay girl who lived and worked in Rome, and her love affair with a married (but separated) Italian man. They story gave me an avenue to utilise the colourful characteristics of the Italians (men and women) as I observed them during my four and a half years wonderful stay in Rome. I was also liberally dropping names of landmarks in Rome and Italy that I knew as a backdrops to my story. It was quite an indulgent piece and was told by some friends that it made interesting reading.
I never attempted to have the story published though, but used to print it out and present it to my lady friends on special occasions like birthdays or a Valentine Day.
In the following post is an except of the story, written in Bahasa Malaysia – I guess for my Malaysian friends only then.
I present Giorgio and Azizah (he calls her Zizi) ……
2 comments:
Roem, I read the story of Zizi and Giorgio first and wondered if it was true. So it's fiction, tapi macam betul aje. I'm glad you upheld Zizi's muslim upbringing and not portray her as some western (orang kita pun ada?)girl with loose morals. I'm being judgemental and it's not good, right. Anyway, you could send the story to a local magazine to be published and see what happens then. Your career as a writer will be launched. And I'd be proud to say that that's my friend, he he.
Yes Roem, a very interesting story. Who knows, one of the Malay film producers may want to turn it into a movie. Local movies set in location overseas normally will sell. At the moment too many 'horror' movies, slapsticks and 'run of the mill' romances.
Salam.
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