Kuala Lumpur – a city that has been in my bucket list for long; got to knock it off my list, thanks to a Conference that I was nominated for by my organisation. And a trip all by myself (I was the sole nominee) meant it was time to wake up the nomad in me. During my short stay of about 5 days, I managed to do quite a bit of hopping on and off (literally so), at most of the city-attractions, indulged in some culinary treats from Saravana Bhavan/Sangeetha’s and also experience the local Malay arts and crafts at Pasar Seni – all this entirely through their immaculately maintained rail networks. Living in Mumbai, I had almost forgotten to realise what it was like to have a useable public transport system; so, that left me impressing over their infrastructure and the way the Malays had maintained their city in such a tourist-friendly manner.
Of course, a critical difference between Mumbai and KL that was pointed out to me during my short stay, are the levels of safety, more so for solo-women travellers. Again, living in Mumbai, I should be forgiven for assuming ‘safe place to return back to the hotel late nights’ as a taken-for-granted parameter. Apparently, I was incorrect. Some of my conversations with locals revealed some truly scary recent instances of how infamous the city was owing to bag/chain snatchers, robbers and human-traffickers, even in heart-of-the-city locations. While such instances are common across almost all countries including India, even the thought of such occurrences in a foreign land can be treacherous.
However, what struck me most was not the magnificence of the twin towers or the Batu Murugan temple; nor the spot-on monorail and LRT rail networks; nor the co-existence of greenery and infrastructural developments; nor the omnipresent sky scrapers that could cause neck sprains, but a short conversation with a couple of local Malay Tamilians about their life in general and the prevailing under-current of local
Malays Vs Tamils that seemed to be boiling below the surface of what seemed to be a smooth co-existence of various ethnic groups and races. It was sad to hear stories of physical abuses and tortures that the Tamils had mentioned that they were subjected to and the apparent inequalities in job opportunities between the two races, both being Malay ‘Citizens’. As a local put it in the vernacular language – “
இலங்கையில ஒரேயடியா செத்தோம்; இங்க கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமா செத்துக்கிட்டு இருக்கோம்”. (“It was genocide at one go, in Srilanka – it is gradual out here!”). Curiously, since the Tamil race had settled in the Malay region generations ago, they have even lost out on the right to call any other country their own and do not have any roots in India which could help them come back freely from a state of unhappy existence. While I am no expert on the history of Malay Tamils, ethnic clashes and racial discrimination in a bustling mega-metropolis that could easily be ranked in the top 5 in Asia if not the world, only makes one wonder what could be a real meaning of ‘modernism’ - is it those trillion dollar investments that make it what it is today or is it a smooth acceptance of racial differences by citizens and the Govt. alike. In a way, it is a lesson to several of us, including yours truly, who migrate looking for greener pastures elsewhere far from our homelands instead of creating economic opportunities and developing our respective origins.
Vibrant streets and culture, never-ending night markets, commonly seen rich-poor divide, cosmopolitan crowd (China town, Little India...), a fascination for the West - Indeed, KL stands for many things “truly Asia”!
