On a Saturday afternoon, at an arts space as a part of the Kreative KL Festival, Public Intellectual and Pusaka Co-Founder Eddin Khoo was in deep conversation with Mavin Khoo, an international Bharatanatyam performer. Few conversations cut as an invisible knife through the haze of performance and performative aspects of art this precisely. The dialogue started with the professional artist dictating the hierarchy of art, of what is considered art. The ritual artist is also a professional, yet the aspects of commodification through residencies, festivals and fundings shape how art is made. Yet, the artist never saw art as a commodity yet as an act of creation. Akram Khan and Mavin Khoo practice for 4 hours in the morning each day, whether there is a performance or not. The personal in the tradition is what makes the art making profoundly unique. The rigour, the light, the music all come together to enable a connection with the audience. As if a shaman is here to heal through the ritual of the performance through catharsis as in Mak Yong.

The realm of the sacred is vital, as art transcends the sheer physicality of the dance form or TM Krishna’s Christmas concert each year does with his music where he enters the Raaga and twists within to improvise. Mavin Khoo does the same as he performs to the splendid, ghazal ‘Aaj Jaane Kii Zidh Naa Kaaro’ which is beyond the traditional repertoire of both Bharatanatyam and Ballet.

The Malaysian artist is truly Indian and global at the same time, as he has the adoration of refined Mylapore December Circuit audiences in Madras as he has at the Lincoln Centre.

Art Making has a pedagogy, an ideology and a product yet Art is in its core is about connection which the artist has to the divine, and in turn with its audience. The audience sees the divine through art.

I look forward to watching Mavin Khoo perform at the NCPA next year in Mumbai.

Toddy is a staple of the tropics. Its consumption is on the up, popular with the boomers. It’s the equivalent of tuak in Malay, toddy is coconut fermented and a bottle of it is RM 19 same as tiger beer.

Toddy’s cooling and herbal qualities with its 14 percent alcoholic content. It is an offering to the deity. Beer is served to Dato Hitam\ Dato Kong. Toddy is fermented in the backyard of homes and is a quasi home industry. Toddy sales is cartelised in the Klang Valley as per a shop owner.

An intimate evening with Mas Goenawan’s poetry organised by Seni Pusaka. Pak Eddin Khoo read an evocative read on Goenawan Mohamed’s work which is equally poetic. Local poets recited poetry from Mas Goenawan’s wide repository.

I don’t understand Bahasa very well but the notes resonated at a spiritual level.

The food was delicious, the biryani and saapadu were both legit.

Situated near the Muzium Telekom, in Lebuh Ampang in the Masjid India area the Chettinad Mess was run by folks from Trichy. The staff spoke Malay and has been in Malaysia since 2008.