Brickfields or Little India in Kuala Lumpur is a site of Malaysian Indian History with the Kuils along Jalan Scott to the Warisan-fication of Jalan Tun Sambanthan. The condos which are Indian expat magnates are sitting on histories of previous generations of Railway workers. Vivekananda Ashrama makes its presence felt amongst Menara Shell and Nu Sentral, the mixed mall and railway interchange. Blind schools and Chinese eateries jostle for the backstreets of Brickfields, with migrant worker eateries below the LRT.
A few pubs show cricket with diaspora supermarkets stocking up Amul products. My personal favourite of Vishal Mess stands along with the Norwegian owned MTR. As Badrul Hisham Ismail writes in his essay collection, Reluctant Capital- Kuala Lumpur is a space of negotiation and contestation, between ethnic quotas and speculative capital.
It has been a fun two years in the city. To many more banana leafs.
Change Thinker 