Comprehensive study into the Singapore Malayalee communityUnique combination of academic essays, personal oral testimonies, hundreds of personal photos, and detailed family treesEach personal story complemented with contemporary portrait photograph of intervieweeAlso includes special 'In Conversation' interviews with noted personalities, such as former President SR Nathan

Across the seas, the winds blow between two lands, whispering back and forth what is seen, heard, tasted, smelt, felt in each place: the green trees, the tropical heat, the lush rain, the peoples of enterprise and culture, the aromas of different flavours and more. A Monsoon Feast is the point at which these winds intermingle, their conversation celebrating the best of what Singapore and Kerala (India) have to offer. "A Monsoon Feast" comprises seven short stories by renowned writers from Kerala and Singapore that provide deep insights on the various concerns and ways of life of both communities. The collection, featuring a foreword by author and poet Professor Kirpal Singh, includes stories by well-known author Shashi Tharoor, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning author of twelve books, including "The Great Indian Novel", and inaugural Singapore Literature Prize winner and popular author Suchen Christine Lim. Also featured are works by authors Felix Cheong, Jaishree Misra, O Thiam Chin, Anjali Menon and Verena Tay. A unique literary collaboration, "A Monsoon Feast" intimately connects the reader to the heart of two similar and yet different cultures.

2023 marks the 60th year since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, comprising the Federation of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak – and Singapore. For Malaysians, 1963 is of profound national significance. For Singaporeans, the more memorable year might be 1965, the year of separation and subsequent independence. Yet for two fateful years, the destinies of the two countries were conjoined. The kinship, affinity – and tensions – are still keenly felt today. This collection brings together writers from both countries to reflect creatively and critically upon this sense of entwinement – to celebrate, to reflect, and to rue, in the tradition of volumes such as The Second Tongue (ed. Edwin Thumboo, 1976). Featured writers include: Anitha Devi Pillai, Anna Onni, Arjun Sai Krishnan, Benedict Lim, Brandon Liew, Clara Chow, Clarissa Oon, Daryl Li, Elaine Chiew, Heng Jia Min, Ho Kin Yunn, ila, Jocelyn Marcia Ng, Jonathan Chan, Joshua Ip, Kevin Martens Wong, Malachi Edwin Vethamani, Mohamed Shaker, Ng Yi-Sheng, Noor Iskandar, Paul Augustin, Rachel Fung, Sharmini Aphrodite, Sheena Gurbakhash, Sofia Mariah Ma, Sreedhevi Iyer, Sumitra Selvaraj, Tse Hao Guang, Yu Kai Tan, Zhang Ruihe

Modern Singapore is a miracle. Half a century ago it unwillingly became an independent nation, after it was thrown out of the Malay Federation. It was tiny, poor, almost devoid of resources, and in a hostile neighborhood. Now, this unlikely country is at the top of almost every global national index, from high wealth and low crime to superb education and much-envied stability. But have these achievements bred a dangerous sense of complacency among Singapore's people? Nicholas Walton walked across the entire country in one day, to grasp what it was that made Singapore tick, and to understand the challenges that it now faces. Singapore, Singapura teases out the island's story, from mercantilist Raffles and British colonial rule, through the war years, to independence and the building of the current miracle. There are challenges ahead, from public complacency and the constraints of authoritarian democracy to changing geographic realities and the difficulties of balancing migration in such a tiny state. Singapore's second half-century will be just as exacting as the one since independence--as Walton warns, talk of a "Singapore model" for our hyper-globalized world must face these realities.

This book is a systematic study (the first of its kind) of the impact of migration on Kerala s community and society. It looks at the number of emigrants and return emigrants and their impact on unemployment and self-employment; impact of remittances on household income and poverty, and the impact of migration on the elderly and women.

The Indian state of Kerala is one of the largest blocs of migrants in the oil economies of the Arab Gulf. Looking closely at the cultural archives produced by and on the Gulf migrants in Malayalam -- the predominant language of Kerala -- this book takes stock of circular migration beyond its economics. It combines formal and thematic analyses of photographs, films, and literature with anthropological and historical details to offer a nuanced understanding of the construction of the Gulf and its translation to the cultural imaginary of Kerala. It explores the dissonance between the private and public discourses on the Gulf among migrants and non-migrants, and demonstrates the role of this disjuncture in the continued fascination for Gulf migrant lives. An enquiry into the various dimensions of the Gulf in Kerala, as an acknowledged means of living, as a rumour, an object of gossip, a public secret, or even a private thrill, this book debunks the idea of language as a common entity and studies the tentative borders built within. Finally, it explores the resources, possibilities, and perils of affiliative communities constructed along and across those borders.

From January 2021, Woon Tai Ho started to meet PN Balji for breakfast every Monday morning. What began as casual catchup between two friends developed into a weekly two, three-hour session, and ultimately this book. From an arranged marriage to fatherhood and now grand-fatherhood, nothing is more important to Balji than family. But in today’s Singapore, youngsters prefer to stay single, or forego having children. Family, the most crucial social institution is under threat. Running parallel to the narrative on family is a bold and critical view of the political transition crisis in Singapore. From Lee Kuan Yew to Goh Chok Tong, and now Lee Hsien Loong, what happens after the third-generation leaders? The PAP has always been decisive, efficient and forward looking, is the current fourth generation leaders up to par as the city state faces its biggest crisis since independence? At 73, Balji has been a journalist under the administrations of all three Prime Ministers and lived through the major milestones of Singapore. His perspectives are insightful and also brutal, but always thorough and original. His is a bold and independent mind, “My views are always pro-Singapore, but not necessarily pro-government or pro-opposition,” he quips. Transition: The Story of PN Balji is a 40-year perspective of the changing social, economic and political life of a city state seen through the discerning eye of a veteran journalist, and how his own life has reacted and transformed with it. Whether it is the institution of family or the institution of state, the book captures the unrelenting views of thinking mind who is waist-deep into his second act.