Adventures in KL Below

The further I travel with the Lady Door, Richard Mayhew and Hunter in London Below, (I have thus far managed to advance a good seventeen pages from the last time I blogged about Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) the further my mind wanders off to create an offshoot story of my own. In this novel, we are introduced to London Below, a parallel world that exists among the many tunnels of the London Underground, where there is really an angel named Islington at the Angel Islington; where one avoids the Shepherds at Shepherd's Bush; where monks in black can be found at Blackfriars; and where the Earl holds his court at - where else - Earl's Court.

So, even though the underground stretch of the Putra line is but a recent addition, I got wondering about who could inhibit KL Below. Musing with a friend over YM yesterday, it came to mind that would P. Ramlee be making movies in Technicolor beneath Jalan P. Ramlee? Who, indeed, would be waiting, patiently, for Jebat at Jalan Hang Tuah? Would a big cat terrorise Jalan Kuching of KL Below? Whose palace would inhibit the parallel Jalan Istana? What trade would Haji Taib ply beneath his Lorong? Would Sultan Hishamuddin or Ismail rule? Or will the Rajas Laut and Chulan fight it out? And would it be in KL Below that we find the forefathers of our 47-year old nation, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak, weeping at the state of the nation they fought so hard to free? Given our propensity for naming roads after people, what would this alternate reality really be like?

And to think, I only picked the book up after seeing it go for 25p at a car boot sale, when a little voice in my head (not sure if it was Idlan B or Idlan C) said to me, "There's a book by that author that Ash, Pickyin and DaisyBoo mention once so often in their blogs." Whoever this Neil Gaiman guy is, he must rawwk.. it's been a long while since I've had stories in my head.