The Games We Play

The Games We Play

When I was in New York some 10 years ago my colleague asked me if I was game to go to the Letterman’s Reality Show. My first question was how much it would cost and when he replied that he could get a cheap ticket for  less than US$ 50/= , I reluctantly agreed. He had asked the Malaysian UN Representative’s office staff to assist us. The officer  whom he had approached had laughed at him as we did no know that one would have to book at least six months ahead for the show!  However, we  were pleasantly suprised at  alternative arrangements made to see the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ play which had been running for over a month.

Plays, Concerts and radio-TV shows are popular means of entertainment and they play to full audiences every night they open in the US, UK and Europe. I am reminded of U-En Ng’s comments in the NST (December, 11). He commented on the lack of enthusiasm and patronage in Malaysia when it comes to exhibitions and performing art in Malaysia as they don't run long enough for the sponsers to make enough profits. He comments on the excellent  facilities  we have in the Petronas Philharmonic Hall and the numerous cultural centres in this country. But performing art, the fine arts and exhibitions appeal to but a small segment of our society. Neighbouring Singapore has made it more attrcative or is that more Singaporeans are taken up by the these concerts and plays.
U-En Ng  laments that Bridges’ Project ‘Richard 111’ with Kevin Stacey is not playing in Malaysia  and one would have to travel to Singapore to catch it.

The Art Theatres in Malaysia are kept alive by small groups of interested actors. Tiara Jacqueline has come on bravely in making some successful shows. The Instant Cafe was a hot when it brought on the best of stand up display by a few actors like Indie Nadarajah. We do see several plays being staged though they don't run for weeks on end as in the West.  I am told that several Chinese troupes are reviving the art and we do see the occasional Taiwanese plays. Ramli Ibrahim’s Indian cultural dance shows appeal to a selected group including expatriates.

Performing Art, Literature and Language will play pivotal roles in crafting a new populace that can’t be compared to education acquired through the formal syllabus preparing one to pass an examination. The ‘cultural desert’ we survive in needs to be watered down with elements of fine arts and the wisdom imparted through literature and the human expressions seen through play acting. Learning through parables has been in vogue from time immemorial. Greek mythology and Shakespearean tragedy send home clear signals relating to ethical and moral principles of life. The Aesop’s fables taught us, as children, the social norms and morals that should be incumbent within. Religious instructions and the verses of holy books all teach us to be good and be humane through stories and verses. 

I was asked to deliver a lecture recently on ‘Pregnancy in  the Advanced Age’. I was wondering what new can I say to the audience who would be largely professionals who themselves are not new to the common problems surrounding the woman who gets pregnant late in her life (after 35 years). The oldest woman who had conceived by assisted conception ( IVF) was 70 years !  I had but 25 minutes to convey my message. After doing so research and completing my power point presentation, it dawned on me that instead to adding the last slide with a ‘Thank you’, I should pen a short poem about the ‘aging egg’. I thought I shall share this poem (if you consider it to be so) so that I can include myself as having contributed to the work of ‘ART and Living’.

The Aging Oocyte

Trapped , I was   for  43 years

In the ovaries of my Egg Bearer

I was not recruited to join the other oocytes

As I was to remain as primordial

I was told that that my colleagues, fellow oocytes

Were mature to go onto to the surface

Of the ovary , to join in the race,

To find a suitor, the ideal sperm

My Egg Bearer thought otherwise

As she postponed her reproductive function

For a career as a professional

Though she was already 30.

When she found the right guy

I was still destined to remain dormant.

Suppressed, oppressed  and depressed

Surrounded by  hormonal contraception

At 43 , I heard that My Egg Bearer was ready

To permit the ‘release’ from my confines

But then I was already old

ATP and  vigour , I had but little

My ‘egg mother’ went to an IVF centre

I was bombarded with FSH, LH and Hormones

I remained unmoved for a while

Till the fourth attempt, I got out from imprisonment!

I pulled out of my slumber

Too weak to make

The passage all the way to the ovarian surface

Of the right ovary where I had resided so long.

I made it to the site

Where I was destined to be rescued

By a directed metal  probe,

They called it 'Egg Retrieval'!

They dropped me  into a petri dish,

Surrounded me with nutrient media,

Poked my skin with a micromanipulator

Trying to get my 42 year suitor in , a sperm.

We are now in union

As an ‘embryo’ they say,

Waiting for our turn to be transferred

Again we have to wait till the other attempts in embryo transfer fail!

We hope we don’t have aneuploidy ,

Or breaks in our life string, the chromosome.

We hope we will survive the transfer

The implantation into the uterus

We promise   to behave , not produce some rejection

In our destined place , the uterine cavity,

As we are old in years; between us we are 85

Pray, don’t let this happen to others  please !

Dato Dr Sivalingam Nalliah (10 Dec 2011)

Penned for the lecture on ‘Pregnancy in the advanced age’ at the O&G Congress, College of O&G Academy of Medicine

Sivalingam Nalliah

11 Dec 2011