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Kuala Lumpur; familiar yet so different



Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia has been my home for a good part of my life. Coming back every now and then from Singapore either for meeting or visiting my family, I see familiar yet unfamiliar sights. Some of the buildings are still the same to me; but the vibrancy of people moving around Jalan Bukit Bintang and the Petronas Tower gives me this insight that Malaysia is indeed exciting and continues to carry its warm hospitality to everyone who comes here. It is seeing to believe that no matter how long I am away, I am still a part of this country in which I started my journey of life.


I took the opportunity to take some photographs of Petronas Tower, the highest building in the world, until dethroned by Taiwan 101. This grand and "steely" structure exudes a strange feeling of pride as a citizen of the country, even though it may have been branded as those mega projects that do not benefit the people. I am not so sure after experiencing the pictures that keep coming into my mind. I provided samples of this humongous structure from the ground floor up, showing the engineering feat of the bridge that pulls the two towers together, providing stability and also emergency evacuation. The silvery glint in the night makes this Petronas Twin Tower, a sight to behold, and an insight of creativity and engineering.

From the 41st floor, shooting downwards, I saw this colorful and artistic playground for children. Likely from the bottom, it is hard to appreciate the design, but the sight from above gives me a totally different perspective of what designer could come out with.
From another part of 41st floor, I noted that even a roof top below it could be turned into a piece of art. It demonstrates that what the mind could see, the hands can conceive. Circles, triangles, squares can form patterns that we could easily miss as banal.
Tonight at Petronas Tower, what I see through my camera lens can give me different perspectives. In life, what I see daily as routine could be changed into something totally out of the ordinary, if only I take the time to see through a different lens. Do I take the time to look at the situation from someone else's shoes? If I were deaf, would the picture be different without the distracting noises? If I were blind, would the feeling of touch provokes a different understanding of the same object? The object could be familiar; but it could be different, if only I let my mind be opened to new perspective.
Thank you, Petronas Tower for this provocation to think beyond the ordinary.

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