Knowing Malaysia

Today morning I was at the Indian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to meet Indian High Commissioner Sri Vijay K Gokhale who took charge about six months back. Sri Gokhale has a fairly good idea about WFUNA activities as well as of the Global Model UN Conference that is going on in full swing in Kuala Lumpur.

The Indian Embassy is located in an old building that needs renovation. I learnt that the Embassy would shift to new premises within a year.

There was a long queue outside the Indian Embassy for various queries. In my presence, the reception desk received a call from an Indian lady who inquired about her lost brother in Malaysia.

Malaysia is home to people from different races, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Tamils of Indian and Sri Lankan origins etc. I was under the impression that South Africa has the largest number of PIOs (person of Indian origin), but Sri Gokhale changed my views when he said that it was Malaysia that actually had the largest PIO base estimated around 20 million against 16 million (approx) in South Africa.

I, along with a friend from the Republic of Korea and USA, visited a Malaysian restaurant Bijan in Kuala Lumpur (picture) that is famed for its authentic Malay cuisine and returned late at night. The warm and serene interiors created an ambience that reflected the spirit of modern Malaysia. The menu featured many traditional Malay dishes from popular ones to rare and forgotten recipes from Kampung.

Bijan was indeed and experience sans the food that I could not taste being a strict vegetarian. After returning to the Hotel late at night I pleasantly discovered one 24×7 dosa shop near Hotel Lotus.

Malaysia has developed very good infrastructure and a decent democratic set up based on the race coalitions. Rubber, petrol and palm oil production are the mainstay of Malaysian economy. The country has one of the best quality petroleum production facilities in the world that is exported to Japan while importing from other countries for domestic use. Malaysia has also emerged as one of the popular tourist destinations in the world.

I had an extensive chat at the Indian Embassy with Ms Kapur over tea about Malaysia and its PIOs.
In the afternoon, I went to the Spice of India restaurant from the Putra Convention Centre for lunch located at a shopping mall underneath the twin Petronas towers.

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