So I went on my first international trip to Malaysia. Now you must think I was excited about it. I wasn’t particularly interested because the people you share a journey with are as important as the destination. And the people I would eventually share it with were my mom’s colleagues, whom I didn’t know much. But yeah, due to my mom’s insistence that she would only go if I accompanied her, I joined her. So we went as part of a package tour, and there were 30 people in it. And they were all amazing, with different kinds of lives and different kinds of stories. As I got to know them over the days, I was happy with my decision to visit this place. It wasn’t just Malaysia I took away; it was the experiences and love of all those 30 people.
Now, on to Malaysia. During my time in Delhi, I would notice the big tourist buses full of foreign tourists and think about how they all saw the polished version of India. The version of India that’s handed out to them. Don’t get me wrong, I am someone who believes that India’s luxury and modernity define it as much as its poverty and superstitions. But you also need to see its villages, travel by train and auto rickshaw, talk to people, ask for directions, and do all those things you would do if you were travelling in your own country. So the tour I went to left me disappointed.
We were foreigners on the bus in Malaysia. We saw the polished version of Kuala Lumpur City, a beautiful testament to human progress. In all their glory, the twin towers signify one of Malaysia’s primary sources of income, petroleum. The Saloma bridge stands across the River of Life, so aptly named. The religious unanimity for such a multicultural group was a shock to me as an Indian, who wanted to dive deep into its history and find the cracks.
I want to go back there. Not as part of any tour package, but I want to see what happens outside Kuala Lumpur. I want to know if all of Malaysia is as polished as its capital, as the view they want to show the rest of the world. It’s not about finding faults; it’s about knowing a place I’ve visited beyond the surface and understanding its current situation from its history.
