Batu Rd. Nostalgia

Back when shopping malls were a thing of the future, we Malaysian had Batu Road. One of my fondest childhood memory is the shopping outings I had with my family. At that time, I was nothing more than 7 and Midvalley was nothing more than a dream of an industrialist sitting in Insaf having his briyani with envy of HanKyu Jaya!





'Back To School' meant it was time to visit mommy's favorite in the whole of Kuala Lumpur; Globe Silk Store. If you're an Indian middle aged man, chances are when you were a kid, your mommy made you wear this white undershirt called a singlet! Why, only God knows. They were called Pagodas and they we sold in Globe Silk Store and I HATED them.

Some things do change; the blind keyboard playing band is no longer stationed in front of the plaza. This was the place where all our school going clothes and casual wear was bought. There was no two ways about it. Mommy would then sneak into a place called Masjid India and the saree shopping galore would start!

There was this other place we HAD to go. This stupid bookstore to buy all our school books! It served very little, nothing more than door stoppers in my opinion. But to the life of me, I could swear it wasn't called Minerva back then. Antoni Book Store sounds so familiar but I am pretty sure that was in Brickfields. Just to step out of topic for awhile, does anyone else think this place should be named Little India instead of Brickfields? Satu Lagi Projek Barisan Nasional laaa that one!

This place was cool! Come on MBS boys, you guys know what I'm talking about? This was the place 9 out 10 of us bought our first badminton rackets. This was the place, we first saw a premier football. This was the place we first saw this silky material used to make a t-shirt and was called a 'jersey'. Not that I'm a sports buff and if anything I'm the furthest from one. But there is something about spanking new sports equipment and apparels that made every boy tingle with joy!


But I wasn't every boy! I only wanted to come here!



The all famous Insaf Restaurant... A few years ago, I would have killed for a briyani here! And to my astonishment, the interior of the place is STILL in the all famous green! Their roti canai garing is a must try! For those of you who love a nice lamb shank drenched in curry, then you need to be here! It's 1.15am and I would do almost anything right now for Insaf to be open!