Great Storytelling Network Newsletter – 21 June 2017

I had a surprise a week or so ago. I opened the Star2 newspaper and almost chocked on my coffee. There, under the Viewpoints strap, was an image of ‘The Banana Leaf Men’ staring back at me. It was Chuah Guat Eng’s piece as part of the 10-part series in the run up to Merdeka Day. Who would have thought that after all these years, people are still talking about ‘The Banana Leaf Men’?

In today’s edition, I tell a story about a recent trip I made to Sydney where I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It’s a unique experience for more than the obvious reason. Rohi teaches you how to set up a Facebook page (not Facebook account) and explains why it’s important to all writers/storytellers to have one. I trust that you’ll enjoy this and other stories we’re sharing with you.

Happy storytelling.
Aneeta Sundararaj

This edition of the newsletter is sponsored by:

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This is a surprise. Climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge. You’re living the high life, I see.

This is the whatsapp message I receive from a relative. What is she surprised about? That I am in Sydney? That I didn’t tell her I was on holiday? Or that I am on holiday at all. It has to be the last one.

That tinge of envy in the message aside, I admit that I told very few people about this desire to climb the bridge. The only ones who know are my friends in Sydney, my mother and some very close friends. Also, I get the feeling that some don’t think I’m serious about it. In fact, my editor isn’t interested in a story because she feels there’s nothing unique about it.

The first time I thought about climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it wasn’t even possible to do so. This must have been in the early 1990s. I stood on the balcony of one of our friend’s homes looking at the view of a city drenched in sunlight. While everyone else commented on the warm weather and fussed over the barbecue, I looked at the magnificent steel contraption in the distance and wondered what it would be like to climb it.

All this changes in January this year when a friend from Sydney visits Kuala Lumpur. On the off chance, I ask if she’s interested in something like this fully expecting her to say no. She surprises me when she’s keen to join me in this adventure. We agree to meet up in about two months and take it from there.

It’s only when I start looking for hotels to stay in that I realise just how much of this city I’ve forgotten. I can’t recognises many of the names of the suburbs I used to visit. Wondering why this is so, I search my memory and it then occurs to me that it’s been some 19 years since I was last in Sydney. Yes, I have visited Australia a few times in the last two decades, but always skipped Sydney.

To read more, please click here.

“I’m going to open a new Facebook account named ‘Anonymous’
so all the cool quotes will be attributed to me!”
~Clinton Thomas

Your Facebook Profile is your personal account; your Facebook Page is your business account. Ideally, you shouldn’t mix the two because your Facebook friends may not be interested in your writing activities and your readers may not be fascinated in your cat.

I confess I didn’t have a Facebook Page until I was forced to create one last week. (Because you need a Facebook Page to create Messenger chatbots.) That’s when I realized that the unbelievable benefits that writers can gain from a Facebook Page.

The good news is that it’s surprisingly easy to create a Facebook Page. It doesn’t take much time either, and best of all, it is completely free. You can create as many Facebook Pages as you like for different aspects of your business. For example, I plan to create separate pages for my health writing and chatbot marketing.

And here’s the icing on the cake: not only can you edit and update your Facebook Page, you can even delete it, if it doesn’t work out for you.

Create your first Facebook Page within 30 minutes:

Use this 12-step process to set up your first Facebook Page.

Don’t put this off!

Do it right now or block 30 minutes in your calendar to do it today…

To read more please click here.

We believe that there are two types of diabetes: the first is where the patient acquires the diseases and this is called ‘Apathyanimittaja Prameha’. The second is where the patient is born with the disease and is called ‘Sahaja Prameha’.

One of my patients, Arun Jacob, didn’t seem to suffer from all the usual signs and symptoms of diabetes. Being over six feet tall, Arun weighed about 86 kilograms, which seemed reasonable. Suddenly, in the space of six weeks, his weight plummeted to 70 kilograms. As he had a family history of diabetes Arun went and had a blood test done.

“Dr. Siby, I almost fell off the chair when I read that my blood sugar level was 22,” he said when he came for his first consultation. “How can this be? I think it’s getting worse.”

I needed to know how far his disease had progressed and asked him a few questions. “Arun, when you go to urinate, what is the colour of the urine?”

“Er… I am not sure. I haven’t really looked.”…

To read more, please click here.

Description: How often have you wished you could understand how your body works? In Knowledge of Life: Tales of an Ayurvedic Practitioner in Malaysia, Vaidya C.D. Siby and Aneeta Sundararaj show you how. Through understanding the basics of the ancient medical system of Ayurveda, you will come to see how you can achieve and maintain good health for longevity. Far from being a textbook on Ayurveda, the elements of storytelling are used to feature some of the more common diseases among Malaysians. They range from obesity, thyroid disorder, diabetes, drug abuse and alcoholism to depression, cancer, stroke, eczema, psoriasis and subfertility. In each chapter, you will read about the disease, the common treatments the patient has undergone and how Ayurveda helped alleviate the signs and symptoms. An enlightening book, Knowledge of Life: Tales of an Ayurvedic Practitioner in Malaysia dispels the myths surrounding this ancient medical system.

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