Take Off With Capt Dr Thiru Jr

Capt Dr Thiru Jr is an airline captain with one of the region's leading airlines. He is a civil engineer by training but quintuples as writer, lecturer, amateur musician, standup comedian and civil activist. On occasional Sundays, he attempts to convict the masses into repentance as an associate minister with a local church.

It is precisely this multiple undertaking that qualifies Take Off as the thinking man's column. Not just informative, but insightful. Not just inquisitive, but intrusive. In-your-face to the point that it can at times, intimidate. Blessed with the gift of saying what everyone else only dares to think but dares not say.

Each article is the product of a hard life forced to consume enough salt to possibly last a lifetime over a two decade period pursuing ten different vocations.

The inaugural edition of Take Off is a compilation of thirty published articles in The Star (Sarawak) between June 2013 and June 2014, addressing issues close to the Malaysian heart. Like the author, Take Off makes no pretensions at political correctness or how many Likes the book would get on Facebook. It only attempts to present the cold, brutal truth with an uncomfortable level of honesty.

If there's one thing that this book can guarantee, it's that it will awaken your conscience. But it will also possibly tick you off. You will not agree with everything said and at times, feel that lump in your throat when you realise that it exposes your own controversial opinions. Yet, it will force you to search, to pay attention, to accept, to detach and eventually, to gain perspective.