1. Dato' M. Shanmughalingam was hyperactive in the debating, literary and drama fields. He was a
member of the very successful school debating team and chairman of the Senior Literary and
Debating Society. He topped the country in the 1956 Sixth Form Entrance Exam with 96%
marks. He was the secretary and, later, joint editor of the Seladang, steering the V.I. newspaper
through one of its most vibrant periods. He was in the first group of Victorians in 1958 to be
awarded the coveted "Club 21" badge for meritorious service to the school.
Shan holds an Honours degree from the University of Malaya, a Masters from Harvard and a
Doctorate from Oxford University. At Harvard he graduated first in class with Grade A in all
eight subjects and was admitted to the Ph.D. programme directly without formal application. At
Oxford he won the Getrude Hartley Memorial prize for Poetry and a graduate scholarship from
Balliol College and the second prize in the Short Story competition judged by the novelist, Iris
Murdoch and John Bayley, Prof. of Literature, and sponsored by ISIS, Oxford University
and The Observer.
Shan is presently the Managing Director of Trilogic Sdn Bhd, an investment holding and
consultancy company. He is also a Director of Mahkota Technologies, of Delloyd Ventures Bhd,
of Malaysian International Merchant Bankers, of MIMB Aberdeen Asset Management Sdn Bhd,
of Asli-Jardine insurance brokers, IT Partners (Mal) Sdn Bhd and GIS Group Sdn Bhd (Brunei).
He sits on various panels, including the Board of Selectors, Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford
University; the international/ national advisory panels to the Asian Strategy and Leadership
Institute (ASLI) and to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER); the Executive
Committee of MIMB; the Committee of the Malaysia Administrative and Diplomatic Service
Alumni Association; and the Board of the VIOBA Foundation. He is also chairman of the
Scholarship Committee of the latter. He served at the Treasury, Ministry of Finance from 1962 to
1978, his last post being Deputy Secretary (Economic), and at Petronas from 1979 to 1991, rising
to the position of General Manager. He is also a Fellow of the Economic Development Institute,
World Bank, Washington DC.
Shan's literary publications include poems and short stories in Commonwealth Anthologies
(London) international anthologies (Singapore), in universities (Harvard, Malaya, Oxford and
Singapore) and in national literary journals. He is co-editor of an anthology of Malaysian poetry.
He was an interviewer/commentator on international and current affairs, and film critic on
Malaysian television, and radio and a member of the advisory panels to the leading national
literary and cultural journals and the informal advisory panel to TV3. He was invited to be
Session Chairman, Commonwealth Writers Seminar for Papers on literature from Jamaica to
New Zealand in Sept 1998. He has been invited to read his poems and short stories at several
national and international readings. The latest was at the Maybank series led by the national poet,
Dato Dr Usman Awang with the Deputy Prime Minister in April 1999.
Shan's works have been the subject of theses in universities in Malaysia and Germany and of a
movie to be made in New Zealand. A video recording of his performance poetry with thirteen of
his own poems has just been made for an Autralian website on international poets. He is also an
avid bird watcher (the feathered kind ).
Grand dad did you breathe
Before air cons were invented
Was it hard staying
Alive without modern inventions?
Grandma weren’t you flustered
As you fluttered with paper fans?

2. Could you communicate before
Faxes and long distance calls
Became basic necessities?
In the first stanza, the poet asks his grandparents about the life before the technology
arouse and become the important usage in the world nowadays. He asks his
grandfather was it complicated to live in the life without technology as he refers the
technology to the invention of the air cons. Then he asks his grandmother regarding the
condition when she used paper fans to cool herself. He also asks his grandmother what
were the possibilities for them to communicate without faxes and long distance calls
compared to the world nowadays.
Grandchild we lived
Before your age. Because
Of our ignorance,
We did not know
Pollution, stress, traffic jams
Destruction of forests, streams and
Hills
We feared God and nature
Now nature fears you and
Money is your new God.
The second stanza shows the answers given by the poet’s grandparents that sum up all
the questions in one simple answer. The reason on why they did not experience all the
pollution, stress, traffic jams, and destruction of forests, streams and hills is because of
their ignorance; they were lack of knowledge by that time. His grandparents add, the
only thing that they fear is God and nature but now, the nature turns to fear the entire
human race and money is the only obsession to human.
The poem Heir Conditioning is a dialogue between the grandparents and their grandchild
about the differences in their generations. The poet offers two different views from two
different generations through the dialogue. The grandchild asks his or her grandparents
about what life was like in the old days and they explain that life was much simpler and they
id not have to face the problems of today's world. This is because they were not advanced
enough to invent many technological inventions during their time. The poem further
explores the differences between the two generations by giving examples of the problems
the grandchild has to face now such as pollution, stress and traffic jams. The poem ends
with a strong message in the last two lines. The message is those living in the grandchild's
have become more materialistic and that they have to pay the price for the progress.
SETTING
The poem is written in a twentieth century setting as there are references to modern gadgets such
as air cons and faxes. The problems mentioned in the poem also allude to current problems faced
by today generation. These include stress, pollution and traffic jams. The dialogue could have
taken place in the living room or any place that allow two parties to discuss certain issues.

3. PERSONA
There are two personas in the poem. They are the grandparents and the grandchild.
THEMES
The poem is concerned about the price one has to pay for progress. With the development, one
has to face many problems that can affect the quality of life. The younger generation has to face
greater challenges in life because they have many wants. The poet highlights the challenges in
the present world and attributes them to our own greed and materialistic ways.
MORAL VALUES
1.We must love our environment.
2. We must be God-fearing.
3. We must not be greedy and materialistic.
4. We must use our knowledge for our own good.
5. We must be grateful with what we have.
6. Progress and development bring about advantages and disadvantages.
7. Present days values are different from yesterday.
8. Greed can lead to destruction.
9. The younger generation has different values.
10. Preserve the environment.
11. We must pay a high price for development.
TONE AND MOOD
The tone is matter-of-fact and honest. The grandchild poses the questions honestly and directly
to the grandfather. The grandchild asks questions in an innocent and naïve tone …did
you…,was it…weren’t you…Could you… The grandfather explains and answers in a firm and
serious tone , the voice of someone scolding, preaching and teaching an ignorant person. (“…we
did not …). However in the last two lines we could sense that the grandfather is unhappy with
the present generation as they have become more materialistic in life and their values have
changed.
STRUCTURE, STYLE AND LANGUAGE
The poem is written in free verse. It does not have a fixed rhyme scheme and it consists of two
stanzas. The poem is presented as a dialogue between grandchild and his grandparents. Stanza 1
consists of four questions. Stanza 2 consists of grandparents’ answers.
The diction consists of common words such as ‘breathe’ and ‘communicate’. An example of
alliteration used in Stanza 1, ‘Grandma weren’t you flustered as you fluttered with paper fans?’
Figurative language such as ignorance and money is your new God. The title refers to the
younger generation who inherits the world today and how they must act responsibly.