Thursday, July 23, 2026

Book 3 - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

I finished reading The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka some time ago. It's the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize. Saw this book for awhile but decided against it and in the end I got it because I didn't have anything to read. The reason why I was against it was because it told the story of a photo journalist who got killed and then he tried to find what happened to him in the seven moons he got. This happened during the Sri Lankan civil war. Sounded heavy and that's why I wasn't drawn to it earlier. I have no knowledge of the Sri Lankan civil war so I did google a lot while reading this book. I wouldn't say my knowledge of it has increased though. This photo journalist is a flawed character, but I was along for his ride in finding out what happened to him. All the while I was thinking this would make a good TV series, but of all the stories that get picked up to be made into films and TV series, I guess stories not from the mind of the Western world have it harder? Anyways, being Asian the parts of the spirits and ghosts being around in whatever weird forms they are are not strange at all for me. This is also perhaps what the Western world may not get. I just find it very natural even though Indonesian and Sri Lankan are a different kind of Asians. I guess because we Asians just accept it as fact there's many spirits all around us, many of us would agree Asians ghost stories and movies tend to be scarier than what the Western world could conjure because for us there's an added layer of it's real or in the realm of possibility. In the acknowledgements the author included Haw Par Villa, which I've never been to despite having lived in Singapore for close to 26 years now. I guess I'm scared, like I need to mentally prepare myself if I was going to visit it. I did hear that many Singaporeans were frightened by the diorama of hell when they were visiting as kids.

Anyways, one really interesting point that got me really thinking was when this photo journalist was at the end of his 7th moon journey. He was presented with drinks that he needed to choose, each of the drink would allow him to:

• forget everything
• remember everything
• forgive the world
• be forgiven
• go where you most belong

Off the bat, I wasn't into option one and two. Maybe my first reaction was forgive the world, but I also want badly to be forgiven (though, is there selfishness in this choice?) and then there's of course the last option which sounds very appealing. Difficult choices and I'm not sure if I have an answer ready right now or if my answer would stay the same; I mean it all may depend on how I am when I die, what mental state I am in. The photo journalist chose the last option and where he ended up was not something we expected :D That made me think of God. What we think is good for us may not be what is really good for us. God has plans. It is our faith that should sustain us, that God knows best.

Faith is something that I'm grappling with right now. I'm in my down, depressed, angry state - I guess back to usual programming. When I finished writing about the trip, I guess whatever glow still covering me, they're completely gone. This real life that I have to go back to kills a little bit of me everyday, leaving me with so little energy. It doesn't help that I seem to get injured more easily now. A small bump causes me pain that doesn't go away even though it's been more than one week. I am sad, I am angry, and I cannot pull myself up. I do not have the energy. It's perhaps a down phase and I will eventually float up a bit (before I go down again), but right now the amount of anger is just ... I'm turbulent inside. Urgh ...

Let me end with other non-important things. I finished watching Paradise season 2. I thought I was getting to like it, but the revelation towards the end just didn't compute for me and I'm back to having mix feeling about it. Then I continued on with the last season of The Bear and I still love them so much. I'm currently watching House of the Dragon. Still watching Aemond - oh dear, what are we going to do with him? I know bad things will befall him. He's so mean and weird, but I will miss him when he's gone. This season has Lord Ormund Hightower and when he first appeared, I was like that's the priest from Grantchester (this was shown in the local TV here years ago). I like him then and was like okay interesting, what he's like here - turned out Lord Ormund Hightower is weird and kinda scary too :( I had to ask AI, he's like uncle to Aemond right? AI said no, it's first cousin once removed. This English wording thing of what cousin which removed, I will never understand. That began my discussing it with AI. In Asian context, if that person is the cousin of your mom, they're your uncle or aunt full stop. You need to respect that person the same and that person also needs to look out for you the same. Anyways moving on, I'm excited that season two of One Hundred Years of Solitude is coming. I think I need to redo watching season 1, so I need to get on that.

:) eKa @ 9:44:00 PM •