the short wanderer

On this date exactly ten years ago, Abah and I sat in a banquet hall in the building of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in Kuala Lumpur. I was invited to a prize-giving ceremony for a competition that I joined the year before: Sayembara Menulis Cerpen Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka 2008.  I have a knack for writing since I was eight or nine. I remember turning my brown notebooks that were supposed to be used for my school subjects into a place to pour out my fictional imagination into words. I cannot remember the number of books I have turned into anthology of short stories. Little did I realise my obsession with writing is a thing, until one day when I was in Year 4, Ummi showed me an advertisement in the magazine Dewan Pelajar (if I am not mistaken) about the advert on the short story writing competition. I had never even thought that my passion caught Ummi's attention! So it went that I managed to send two manuscripts to DBP for the competition. I basically chose two of the ma