MayaKirana

I am a 34 year old Malaysian woman living on the island of Penang. Together with my husband, Nic, we manage Redbox Studio, a web design/web consultancy business which he started in 1998.

I think the best way to describe me, the ever-changing Piscean, is that I love the written word - I have always loved scribbling unfinished stories, letting my imagination take over and giving my creativity a free rein.

It is no wonder then that I love blogging, a hobby I discovered by accident one day in 2002. And I’ve stuck to it though sometimes it unnerves me that there are strangers who read my blog and build up pieces of me in their minds, especially those who have not met me in person.

I was born in Penang (that’s why I came back to this charming island!) but I grew up in Banting, Selangor. Banting is flourishing these days, thanks to its location. Banting is just a 20-minute drive from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang. Banting was also famous for the Sidek brothers, you know, those badminton lads who won the Thomas Cup in the early 1990s.

When I came to study in USM Penang about 14 years ago, I decided to stay on after graduation. Even my Sarawak-born husband, Nic, who loves his Kuching town to death, admits begrudgingly that yes, Penang is a jewel in its own right - dirty, noisy, very Chinese-y, yes, but with lots of old-world charm, robust characteristics and so convenient to move about, despite our cutthroat taxis and bone-shaker buses. Not that I’ve taken any public transport for years now.

We used to be a work-from-home outfit but 9 years on, we now have an office in USM, thanks to our partnership and collaboration with the USM School of Arts where we guest lecture and provide practical input for their web design programme.

Before I joined Nic in his business, I was in the corporate world for 7 years. I was in advertising, web content management and corporate communications. As you see, everything to do with writing!

I quit the corporate world in 2004 to go full-time into the business. It is the BEST decision I ever made in my life. I am now enjoying my life immensely - I write content for websites; often combining online marketing with web copy writing. It helps that I love this business and I love marketing, especially trying out novel and creative approaches.

On the side, I still have the “journalist” in me (I majored in Journalism for my first degree) whereby I sometimes write feature articles for overseas newspapers and magazines such as Reader’s Digest and The Western Australian News.

And so, if you have learnt a little about me, you will learn more about me as you sample what’s in my blog. I write on a variety of topics, but I try to write often - food, life, observations, pets (oh did I have many in my life). We don’t have children, not yet anyway. Right now, we have a fat tabby called Margaret. She keeps us busy with her constant mewing for food!

And if you feel you need to write to me, please do.

I love getting mail, I love hearing from strangers whom in the end become my friends.

P.S. If you’re wondering why MayaKirana, is it a real name? Is it a pseudonym? Oh horrors, has it anything to do with that pontianak woman, Maya Karin? Here’s the answer to your niggling question… read it in this blog post of mine.