How To Tell A Great StoryGreat StoryTelling Network Newsletter
Volume 14, Issue 5 – 15 May 2018
Dear [FIRSTNAME],

‘We Mark Your Memory: Writings from Descendant of Indenture’ will be launched tomorrow. As such, my piece contains my musings about the book, what I learnt about indenture and how I applied what I’d heard in my writing.

This is Rohi’s 100th contribution to this newsletter. He’s chosen to share over 100 resources for Writers.

I hope you enjoy all we share.

Happy storytelling.
Aneeta Sundararaj

CONTENTS AND LINKS TO OUR STORIES

–> Marking Memories by Aneeta Sundararaj

–>100+ Awesome Free Resources for Online Writers by Dr. Rohi Shetty

Guest Blog: Editors: what makes them the way they are by Sreelata Menon

STORY ME – Marking Memories

We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture[Full disclosure: Some of the links in this story are affiliate links which means that if you follow them and buy the stuff, I get a percentage of the payment made with no extra cost to you.]

On 17 May 2018, an anthology called We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture (http://www.commonwealthwriters.org/we-mark-your-memory/) will be launched in London. I am very proud that one of my stories was accepted for this anthology.

As I read the other works in this anthology, I am fascinated by the stories they tell. Things become even more interesting when the editors say that many artists worldwide have ‘artfully created literary responses to the scars of the system of indenture and its legacies.’ I didn’t see the legacies as ‘scars’. In fact, when I was writing this story, my father was aware that the setting for this story would be where he born and brought up – Foothills Estate. He insisted that I should not write ‘bad things’ about it and said, “It was a very nice place to grow up.”

Recalling my father’s words and reading the stories in the anthology made me think a little more about this whole system of indenture. I recognise some of the events the others write about. Yet, I can see that my father’s experiences (and that of my grandfather’s) are also different. So, I decided to study this whole thing a little more.

For a start, to paraphrase what our editors have written, the abolition of slavery was the catalyst to the arrival of the first Indian indentured labourers in the sugar colonies of Mauritius, Guyana and Trinidad. Indentureship then began in South Africa and Fiji.

In Malaya, the indentured labourer was brought into the country to serve a new industry, the rubber industry. Indeed, there was such a demand worldwide for rubber, that the emphasis of the British shifted entirely to large-scale production of rubber in Malaya. By 1910, there were many plantations all over the country and a whole new community existed.

In A Gentleman’s World: The Legacy of Subhas Chandra Bose in Southeast Asia, Nilanjana Sengupta writes about the Indian labourers brought in by the British:

‘…Plantation work, be it rubber, spices, oil palm or tea, required simple, repetitive, unskilled work for which the British deemed the Indians, particularly the South Indian Tamils to be adequately subservient and suitable. … To quote a planter’s observation around 1911: “The Tamil struck me as being a poor specimen, both in physique and morale and of being abject, cowardly and generally lacking in vitality … The blind admiration of the white man by these Tamils is really rather pathetic.” The entire, close-knit world of the rubber estates came to be built on two founding tenets – imperial power on one hand and the systemic exploitation of plantation hands on the others. Be it in the form of a bonded labour or under the supposedly ‘free labour’ system run by the kanganies, their endemic condition remained the same.

‘As years passed, certain characteristic features emerged. Firstly, life on the plantation was highly regimented with the European planter at the top of the pyramid, followed by the clerk or the krani, from Asian stock but from Ceylon or Malayalam speakers from Kerala. Separated from the labourers from the communal barrier, they ensured the ‘General Instructions of the Company’ were followed, conducted and early morning parade and roll-call, made sure the labourer dismounted from his bicycle every time he passed the planters bungalow or parted his hair in the traditional way with a tuft. After this came the kangani or the overseer, the actual leader of the tappers, while the South Indian labourers were at the bottom of the pile. Most numerous, they led the lifestyle planned and standardised by the management in miserable ‘line house’ – amidst squalor and hopelessness.

‘… [The] trend of subsistence wages meant the labourers were left with very little margin after meeting their basic expenses. This margin they could either use for remitting to India, or to buy a return passage home, or as it happened in most cases, spend it on toddy – the only means of easy entertainment available on the plantations.

‘… This large mass of humanity lived on in comparative isolation in the insular worlds of their estates. With the unbending plantation discipline, which made it difficult even for relatives to visit their families, which made it difficult even for relatives to visit their families living on the estates, meant that they were virtually cut-off from the external world.’

With my grandfather once being the head ‘krani’ in Foothills Estate, Kulim, it is this ‘isolation in the insular worlds of their estates’ that I tried to describe in the story for the anthology, The Legend of Nagakanna.

To read about Nagakanna’s world in your own copy of We Mark Your Memory, click on any of the links below:

STILLNESS AND FLOW: 100+ Awesome Free Resources for Online by Dr. Rohi Shetty

This is my 100th post for How to Tell a Great Story and I want to thank Aneeta for her unfailing support and help through the years. Also, thanks to you all for your valuable feedback over the years. To celebrate, I am sharing a curated list of 100+ free online resources, which I am sure will be of great help to you.

A word of warning, however. “Take what you want and eat what you take.”

Don’t overload yourself with stuff you won’t be able to use – it will just end up collecting dust on your hard drive and contribute to your sense of overwhelm.

Mission Profitable Giveaway
This giveaway organized by Cat Stancik gives you free access to over 30 gifts, from blueprints, templates, checklists, to online training from industry leaders and experts! It ends on 21st May 2018, so check it out right away here.

The Done4You Giveaway
This giveaway organized by Kim Clausen and Linda Claire Puig gives you access to about 75 done-for-you products and services. This year, it’s bigger and better than ever. More than 50 contributors are giving away free business products and services, totaling more than $1.5 million.

Here are a few tips to get the maximum benefit:

      • Peruse all the giveaways in all the categories.
        There are free gifts from ALL contributors, and raffled items from many, so be sure to check them all out. As you review the giveaways, there may be prizes that you hadn’t thought of that could benefit you in your business.
      • Take your time.
        Don’t feel like you have to review all the giveaways at one time. Make note of where you left off from your previous review, and start there next time.
      • Schedule time to review the categories.
        To get the most from the giveaway, you may want to review the gifts in several sittings. For example, you can allot 30 minutes three times this week to review and sign up for your gifts.
      • Don’t wait to redeem your prize.
        If you win a raffled gift, remember that you must redeem your prize within 30 days unless the contributor states otherwise. So don’t delay in contacting the contributor of your prize.
      • Create a special place on your computer to store all your freebies.
        There are a lot of valuable downloads available through the Done4You Giveaway. When you download them, they could get lost or you could forget that you have them. Create a special folder on your desktop so that when time allows you can easily access your free gifts.
      • Tell your subscribers, clients, and friends.
        The Done4You Giveaway is the only giveaway that offers actual done-for-you products and services, not “how-to’s”. This is a huge benefit to many business owners who could use the additional support. Please share with others who could benefit from these great giveaways too.

Check it out before it ends on 28th May 2018.

Five Valuable Reports by Ellen Finkelstein
Ellen Finkelstein is the author of many best-selling books including How to Do Everything with PowerPoint and PowerPoint for Teachers. Check out her free gifts for online writers:

Five copywriting guides by Gary Korisko
Gary Korisko is a successful copywriter and the owner of Reboot Authentic. Once you subscribe to his site, you get instant access to the following free resources:

      • How to Influence All The Right People is the real-world guide to breaking away from the herd and doing something special.
      • 10 Ways to Make Your Content Worth Following is a simple one-page checklist that will help you craft content your customers will clamor to consume!
      • How to Seal the Deal With Integrity will teach you how to sell to yourself and others – without being sly, slimy, schmutzy or salesy.
      • 9 Laws of Power Persuasion is a quick reference to 9 of the most powerful psychological laws of persuasion that you can use to get people to take action quickly.
      • 6 Ways to Genuinely Connect With Your Audience is a one-page guide that outlines six simple but powerful principles of magnetic connection.

The Writer’s Bootcamp by Elaine Calloway
The Writer’s Bootcamp is a free 30-Day Course to help you organize and write your book draft in 30 days. Each day includes a lesson, worksheet, and checklist.

The Ultimate Personality Test
Take this personality test to understand yourself better and live a more effective and fulfilling life. This test is free (formerly $39) with no email registration required.

You can choose to test your personality type, multiple intelligences, learning styles and brain hemispheres. This test is estimated to take about 25 minutes based on your selections. It is a self-discovery tool so there are no wrong answers.

After you complete it, you will gain instant access to your personalized 20-page report with insights to improve your relationships, career, learning, and character.

Check it out here.

Join the conversation:
Which of the above resources did you find the most useful?
Let us know .


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