I left Kuala Lumpur (KL) just two days ago. My presentation went well but I wish there was more time and less structure to the gathering. But if you have been around academics then you know the drill. (Ps. pictures are not mine, I will post my own when I get back to Delhi. For now, most of these are stolen from the web ... from Wikepedia.com to be exact.)
A lady from South Africa was in the audience and told me that "we don't like our muslim men to wear earings." I just smiled and ignored the comment. After my prsentation she invited me to visit here in Joburg (this is an aerial view of Joburg) and give lectures at the madressa she teaches at (in Bosmont nogal :) .... guess my earing was not such a big deal anyway ...
KL was great. The Petronas Towers are a sight to gaze at ... and dammit the mall inside is a great place to play with all the latest electronic goods. I will have to get Angela to go with me to BestBuy to pick up an IPod; a new zoom lens digitial camera; a plasma TV; Sony Playstation; etc, etc! Get the 4x4 ready I feel a need to stock up on crap ;)
There are many beautiful mosques all over Malaysia. The ones I looked at in KL and Malaca are wonderful. Made me remember that my Malay grandfather, Janodien Adams, built three mosques in my hometown of Kimberley before he died. He was an artisan of great skill, no wonder the Dutch brought our ancestors to South Africa as slaves .... wonder what must be done to make a case for reparations!
It felt so good to be away from the chaos of New Delhi (well India really). The place is ordered and clean! You can get anywhere on the mass transit system and folks are calm and do not push you out of their way. Indians can learn a lot about common courtesy from Malaysians. Ok, so now I am going to be blasted for that comment .... all I can say is "go live in India." This said, I must confess that I miss New Delhi ... the chaos is about character. Read about Delhi at: http://www.delhilive.com/
However, Malaysia feels like one big American mall. The roads look alike and I often felt like I was about to enter Baltimore, or Los Angeles, or Portland, or ... you get me point, right?
The four food groups are here (McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hit, and Subway). Umm no Angela, I have not seen a Taco Bell, yet ;) ... Malaysian politicians make a big noise about colonization and independence, yet the more I look around the more corporate colonization I see. I wonder if they expect that a nation can have an independent identity while eating McCrap?
I must confess that after a long haul in India, I visited Starbucks twice already. Sorry PDP (I will plant a tree in SA when I get home ;) Truth is I need coffee that tastes even remotely like coffee and not milk with a touch of the bean. Dammit, I'm more colonized than I want to admit, huh?
OK, so I will be back in India in a week or so, to meet Mooi and find Jesus or Sai Baba, or sumthen. I need to psyche myself up that part of the trip. JNU has asked/offered that I stay on till the end of January. I will do so and then be back in SA by February.
Holla.
Ps. Sam travel safely to SA and geniet jou tyd met die familie. Hulle kan nie wag nie Broer ... Fati is seker all besig in die kombuis. Se maar Sharon moet die diet vergeet :)
2 comments:
Hey- I think that Malaysia is completely different than India just looking at the history and the economic bulge of the 90's. I love your blog, great read. Thanks for sharing.
Love and peace to you.
Thanks Kimberley. I know Kuala Lumpur and Malaka to be quite different. But Malysia has some really tacky-ass places too. I sometimes think that the place is trying to hard to be modern (whatever that means). But, after so much travelling any place is bound to work the nerves.
I spent a couple of days in Singapore and really like the place. I felt closest to some kind of Malaysian connection in a place called Kampong (village) Glam.
I now regret that I left to come to this hell-hole called Port Dickson on the Malaysian west coast. But today has been hard. I had to walk 14 kms to get to town.
Today being Friday, it's a religious holiday and all taxis and buses were on a go-slow.
Port Dickson is however the most awful place I have seen in a long while. And, if you have read my comments here you know that India has some really crappy places. Port Dickson ranks up there with the worst in India ... though Indian crappy places are far dirtier than anything I have seen in Malaysia (and Singapore is so clean it is amazing).
I leave for New Delhi tomorrow and I can't wait. Never thought I would say such a thing, and so soon.
Holla!
Ridwan
Port DicKson ;)
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