Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Ramachandran, a Tamil, was hospitable and enthusiastic, keen to take me on a tour of Kuala Lumpur. I would have to see the Maha Mariamman temple and the Batu caves , as "without them a trip to Malaysia would be incomplete," he asserted. The Batu Caves temple, devoted principally to Lord Subramanian swamy, is a big tourist attraction for the entire South East Asia, with people of all religions and nationalities visiting it. Established in 1891, it's a signature spot of Hindu civilizational marks on the Malay Peninsula. Hindu influence, dating back to 2nd century AD, can be seen in Malay culture, language and traditions even today. The "Malay" of Malaysia, and "Pur" of Kuala Lumpur are unmistakably Sanskrit . I was introduced to a vivacious amount of Malaysian history while climbing the 272 steps leading to the Batu Caves. More Chinese Buddhists were praying there than Hindus. The atmosphere was so sublime and enchantingly serene that I felt I was in...

Kuala Lumpur: Rising oil wealth is lifting Islamic banking - which adheres to the laws of the Koran and its prohibition against charging interest into the financial mainstream. Big banks, including Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank , as well as financial capitals like London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, are all going into the Islamic banking business. An estimated 300 Islamic financial institutions hold at least $500 billion in assets, an amount that is increasing more than 10 per cent a year. In addition to Islamic loans, there are Islamic bonds, Islamic credit cards and even Islamic derivatives. Loans and bonds that conform to the Koran are already available in the US. And Britain, Japan and Thailand are contemplating issuing Islamic bonds of their own. "This is an industry on its way from a niche industry to becoming a truly global industry," said Mr Khawaja Mohammad Salman Younis, the managing director for operations in Malaysia for Kuwait Finance House, the world's se...

KUALA LUMPUR: Agencies that supply foreign maids in Malaysia on Wednesday welcomed a government plan to allow recruitment from India, Nepal, Laos and Vietnam to fill a shortage caused by low wages and reports of abuse. "We were waiting" for this decision, said Raja Zulkepley Dahalan, president of the Malaysian Association of Foreign Housemaids Agencies . "Of course we support this." He said Malaysia would need to hire at least 1,000 maids every month to alleviate the shortage. "We have a problem now, 94.8 per cent of the maids are from Indonesia. We cannot depend so much on one source," he said. He said fewer Indonesian maids are applying to work in Malaysia because salaries here are lower than in other countries, and also because many are scared away by media reports that maids are physically abused by Malaysian employers. Reports have highlighted several abuse cases in past months. In the most publicized case, a maid escaped her...

THAIPUSAM is an annual Hindu festival which draws the largest gathering in multi-racial Malaysia - nearly a million people in 2000. In Kuala Lumpur, the festival is celebrated on a mammoth scale at the Batu Caves temple on the outskirts of the city. It began in 1892, started by early Tamils who migrated to colonial Malaya. Thaipusam falls on a full moon day in the auspicious 10th Tamil month of Thai when the constellation of Pusam , the star of well-being, rises over the eastern horizon. Several hundred devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods - often a metre long - and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles in penance. Tourists watch in awe as metal pierces the skin with hardly any bleeding and, apparently, no pain as the devotee stands in a trance in the dawn light after weeks of rigorous abstinence. Over the years, curious British, American and Australian medical experts have come to observe and speculate. Some think the white ash smeared on the ...