In English, Pulut is a type of sticky rice or grain food , Serunding, it's hard to describe it but is a type of food with spices and it's cooked until it's dried and Kasih means love or care.
This is serunding.
This is pulut in Malaysia.And of course, you know what love and care looks like.
This novel in Malay so if you don't understand this language and want to know the story here's how it went down. The story revolves around the life and love story of a young Malaysian man, Rafique, and a young Japanese woman named Tomomi. The story sets in 21's century, of course. I don't want anyone confuse with all the whole war thing. This is actually thick and has 470 pages because most of it tells the early days of Rafique and Tomomi and the long conversation. Rafique's emotion plays a role with him living and working at The Land Of The Rising Sun, Japan, and finds out Wahidah, a long time friend from his village furthered her studies in Japan just after Rafique went back to his home village during his holiday, Talk about timing...but hey, that's Malay drama...there's always a glitch in Malay drama which is why I hate them so much. Anyway, Tomomi's parents got divorced and it made her become sad, depressed and a little rebellious. Even in high school she was rebellious but she got pick up of that attitude because of her friends. Tomomi was considered a beautiful girl and this guy, Kazu, was totally head over heels for her. but Tomomi only sees Kazu nothing more but a friend. Kazu becomes more desperate and a little nutty over her as there was one time he took advantage of Tomomi when she got drunk. Despite, all of that, Tomomi was cool as a cucumber and brush it off. As soon as her mother comes back home from work, Tomomi slip out of the house secretly to go karaoke with her friends Ringo, Sanae and Kazu. The manager of the karaoke, Madame Rose (an old Japanese Drag Queen) seeks help from her loyal customers to find her son Nakahara Akira after his son lost contact with the family after he finished his studies. Akira only posted postcards to his family. So, they journey to Mount Fiji as the last postcard Akira last sent was there. At the same time, Rafique went to Mount Fiji to help one his work friend to keep his house at Mount Fiji safe and tidy. He took the offer and sees it as a an opportunity to clear his mind as he got dumped by his love interest. Now, Tomomi's mom got into a relationship with a married old guy and she revealed the secret to her mother. Tomomi got pushed off by the married old guy while she was separated with her friends at Mount Fiji. She fell from a ledge and got lost in the forest. Luckily, Rafique was there to help the girl. Bad thing about it, Tomomi lost her memories after the fall and there was a snow storm in Mount Fiji so Rafique can't get help or go outside for that matter. Rafique called her Kimiwa whch means "you" in Japanese as Tomomi had no memories at all. Rafique nursed her, fed her and even bathed her. Rafique tried helping Kimiwa get her memories and health back. They talk in various conversation, bonded , ate pulut and serunding together and eventually fell in love with each other .Now, don't get any dirty thoughts...even though they're both alone in an empty big house, they're boy and a girl, Rafique even bathed her....and yes, she was naked. He even help putting her clothes one ( yes, naked, again...) but they never had any contact not even a kiss. Remember, Rafique is a Muslim.....Back to the story, after the bad weather was gone. Rafique took her to the hospital and he never saw her again. Tomomi got her memories back when she saw the picture of Rafique's work friend, Akira. Tomomi's parents remarried after they had good terms with each other when Tomomi got lost, her friends Sanae was happy to Tomomi, i don't know what happen to Ringo, Kazu had a new life after Tomomi disappeared, Akira had settle in with his new life and Madame Rose accepted it, Tomomi became a Muslim once she was inspired by the stories of the Prophet Muhammad that Rafique told and also was inspired by the deep and emotionally moving words from the Quran while she was in the hospital. Years later, Rafique and Tomomi reunited again when Rafique visited a birthday party of a friend. The End.
My Opinion : I was hoping and expecting more from this novel than this but the novel is pack full of information about Japanese culture and people which is good. Is it romantic enough ? To me, no, as the conversation seemed pretty bland, ordinary and not usually used in reality and everyday life. Conversation is everything in romance because it shows how the relationship grows and sparks flying. Not because of overly dramatic scenes or overwhelming physical contact between two people but the way the flow of the relationship is important and conversations is the role of a potential love to happen. The good thing is that this novel is overly dramatic like every romance genre Malay novel you'll find. For that, i'll give this novel three stars out of five. If you happen wanting to buy Malay novels, you can buy this one cause it's seem pretty good for a Malay novel standards but if you come across a novel called Nora Elyna. DON'T BUY A NOVEL CALLED NORA ELYNA ! IT'S THE WORST NOVEL I'VE EVER READ AND MAKING A DRAMA SERIES MADE IT EVEN WORST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY ?! I'LL BLOG IT ABOUT NEXT TIME.......THAT'S FOR SURE...
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