Perhaps the most touching part of Kishore Mahbubani's memoirs, Living The Asian Century, is when he talks of meeting the father he seems so much to resent, while on a home trip between postings to Washington and New York.
“I saw how proud my father was when I came home for a visit; he took out his wallet and showed me all the press clippings about my posting that he had neatly cut and saved,” Mr Mahbubani writes.
The senior Mr Mahbubani had risen through a hardscrabble existence, wound up as a salesman in a Sindhi textile merchant's shop, and got into trouble with the law – fetching him a jail term that would break up the family.
Mr Mahbubani's narration reveals he himself was firmly on his mother's side, and he credits his late mother for his own in-built resilience – even if your tummy is churning, walk around as though you have ghee (clarified butter) on your lips!
Anyone who watched Dean Mahbubani endure the travails that followed his Op-ed in The Straits Times on Qatar's lessons for Singapore, and the Huang Jing episode, would know the good professor learnt that lesson well.
Years later, his elan is intact, and he continues needling Western audiences to rethink attitudes to China, and much else.
That said, this isn't as much a column on Mr Mahbubani as about parent-son relationships, which can be complicated. In the best of times, it is said that male children start out as mama's boys and end up as father's best friends.
But it isn't always so.
FROSTY FATHERS In the era that Mr Mahbubani was born, it was common in many Indian families for fathers to keep children at a frosty distance – no doubt, all part of creating the aura required to assert authority over what often were large households.
That was the case with my friend, M, who gained fame as a broadcaster on the BBC's Hindi service.
この記事は The Straits Times の October 12, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The Straits Times の October 12, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Jung Ho-yeon takes on Hollywood in Disclaimer
The drama series marks the Squid Game star's first English-speaking role
French pianist Helene Grimaud plays with time
Acclaimed French classical pianist Helene Grimaud, who has earned a reputation for playing by her own rules, thinks there should be no contradiction between freedom and fidelity.
Eisner Award winner submitted her comic as practice
Erica Eng submitted her web comic Fried Rice for the Eisner Awards on a whim in 2020.
Two-time Booker Prize nominee almost gave up writing
Acclaimed Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan has had first-hand encounters with the vagaries of the publishing and book-selling worlds.
A frank, and funny, work about the female body
Cat Bohannon wrote her best-selling non-fiction debut Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years Of Human Evolution (2023) while also having two children, completing a doctorate and surviving the Covid-19 pandemic.
SILAT WILL MOVE 'UPHILL'
SSF chief plans to improve governance, selection process and coaching quality
One C'ship lets go of 'a few dozen employees'
Mixed martial arts (MMA) organisation One Championship has laid off a number of employees - including those from its Singapore headquarters - on Oct 16.
EPL pays highest price for injuries
Players in Germany's Bundesliga are most likely to be injured among Europe's top five domestic leagues, but the English Premier League bears the most injury-related costs, according to a report published on Oct 16.
Cantona slams 'scandalous' decision to axe Ferguson
Manchester United's most successful manager Alex Ferguson will step down as a global ambassador after the club's part-owners Ineos ended his multi-million pound contract.
PROFLIGATE PORTUGAL LACK MAGIC: COACH
Martinez's men can't find way past stubborn Scotland, but have one hand on q-final spot