Malaysian educator revisits his ‘growing up gangsta’ years in a Johor Baru kampung

US-based writer Azly Rahman's memoir 'Grandma’s Gangsta Chicken Curry And Stories From My Hippie Sixties', which reconciles culture, identity and belonging, is also a glimpse of youthful times in Malaysia in the 1960s. Photo: Penguin Random House

Azly Rahman was just six-years-old when he witnessed a beheading at the back of his house in Kampung Majidee, a Malay village about 8km away from Johor Baru.

It was a bloody affair but a necessary one to get a chicken dinner.