Awang Goneng Is In Town!

GUiT-manyToday, I met Uncle Awang Goneng at the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Awang Goneng (a.k.a. Wan A. Hulaimi) grew up in Terengganu but later on moved to London, a place so far away from his homeland. His beautiful book ‘Growing Up In Trengganu’ (originated from his blog –http://kecek-kecek.blogspot.com) was written to share with everyone about the life in Terengganu in the 60’s.

I attended ‘The Writing Mind’ workshop where Uncle Awang Goneng taught us some tips on writing. One of them which sticks in my mind was to increase your vocabulary skills – or in other words, never be afraid of using a dictionary. It reminds me of Prof. Muhammad Al-Mahdi’s ‘favourite assignment’. He would tell my AG - workshopclassmates and I to make a list of 20 hard words and remember all 60 words, it’s spelling and definitions. To make sure we memorised each of them, we shall have to take a test at the end of the week.

Uncle Awang Goneng also taught us  to read aloud what we have written after finishing a piece of work. It helps us to correct unnoticeable small mistakes. This Jalan Kedai Payangwas also taught by Prof. Muhammad and since then, I made a huge improvement in my writing class.

But Uncle Awang Goneng was really sad to hear about the unacceptable act of the government to demolish a more than a century old shophouses row in our hometown, Kuala Terengganu. Such historic building should be kept and preserved such as those in

Aiman with AG

Penang and Malacca. But we were even shocked to know that Uncle Awang Goneng’s house in Terengganu was going to be demolished

too. I guess one day, Terengganu would be the only state in Malaysia to lose all of it’s history and heritage clue to the cruel act of the state government.

Before leaving, I took the opportunity to ask Awang Goneng to autograph in my diary. Thank you Uncle Awang Goneng (Uncle Wan).

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3 thoughts on “Awang Goneng Is In Town!

  1. sedih r tengok tempat-tempat sejarah dan kenangan aku
    masa kecik2 dah xada..dekat kg aku sume tempat aku bermain dah hilang…skang kdai2 lama dekat pasar payang lak nk kena roboh..tempat cari buku dulu..naik bas g town byar 50sen..pastu jalan kaki pergi alam akademik.
    apa-apa pun aku tumpang simpati dengan pekedai sumer..
    amani..kagum r tengok penulisan ko..pandai bercerita dan menulis..uncle AG pun..kagum sangat..betul2 menusuk jiwa dan mingimbau kenangan baca tulisan dia dlm GUiT.
    Semoga semuanya akan ok…

  2. assalamualaikum

    my name is fatimah syahirah.
    i like your suite so much because your English are awesome and amazing. i want to be like you. i can talk arab so much from English hihihihi.

    thank you for watch my blog

  3. Assalamu Alaikum,
    Dear Fatimah,

    Thank you. You have to work hard and practice to improve your English. I love the photos in your blog, they are really nice. 🙂

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