Storytelling has always come easy to Lat, previously through witty and amusing cartoons, and now using pure words.
The nation’s most-loved cartoonist, in his text-dominated latest book, Lat: My Life And Cartoons, launched in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, on Saturday for instance, related an unforgettable and frantic situation many years back at the Kai Tak International Airport in Hong Kong as he was waiting to catch a flight back to Kuala Lumpur.
That was sometime in October 1986 after a stint for several days in the busy commercial capital, including a period as a guest of the Hong Kong Tourism Department.
“I discovered that I had lost my credit card,” he wrote. “I had my passport and bag with me and was running late to catch the flight. I was advised to stay back to settle the problem, but I wanted to go home fast and needed to get on board, although the plane was ready to depart.
“I did not have any luggage to be checked in, but still the woman at the desk refused to let me through as it was already too late.”
Lat persisted with his plea to no end, even explaining that he had cancelled the card which he had lost. But she was adamant.
“From where I was, I could see that although the departing gate had already closed, the plane still had its passenger boarding stairs in place. In desperation, I told the woman to contact the captain of the flight and gave my name as Lat, and she did by telling the captain: ‘Please help Lat, who wants to get on board. L-A-T. Lima alpha tango’.
“She went to the back and talked into her walkie-talkie and suddenly grabbed my hand and my bag, and we sprinted down the ramp to a waiting van which raced towards the plane. And we made it.”
Obviously, the captain must have known who Lat was. But, the story didn’t end just like that. In the van, the puzzled woman asked who he actually was.
He answered: “the Elvis Presley of Malaysia”.
“The driver looked at me in his rear-view mirror when he heard Elvis. But, that was the only time I took advantage of my fame,” he said.
The above narration is just one of the anecdotes in the book. There are so many others, and we get a rare insight into the celebrated artist right from the first page to the last.
Lat is simple and unassuming. And, it is, therefore, not difficult to believe when he wrote: “I didn’t try to be special and didn’t use my name to gain any advantage for anything except for that one time in Hong Kong.”
I feel very honoured and privileged to have contributed to the publication of the book as the co-author. Everyone knows Lat, everyone can relate to his cartoons, everyone loves him, but not everyone knows his personal stories, his background. It’s in the book.
He uses his gifted power of observation and sharp wit when he draws. And, the humour that comes out is amazingly cynical in a funny way. Yet, in all of his drawings all this while, he made it a point that nobody gets offended. You need skill for that.
In the book, he also mentioned that there came a time when he refrained from openly sketching his subjects in front of them as this would make them uncomfortable. So, if he wanted to draw a scene in a coffeeshop, he would study the place and put the image in his mind to draw it later.
“While this was a challenge, I felt good because at least I did not offend people by sketching in front of them. It is surprising how much you can capture through mere observation.”
That’s another rare insight. Grab the book.
Syed Nadzri is a former NST group editor
