Sunil Sethi / New Delhi September 08, 2007
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia is having a bang-up celebration of 50 years of nationhood. KL’s swank new airport, close to a major port, is a temple to modern passenger and cargo handling. Bagpipers and bands strike up in the halls as headscarf-covered ladies decorously serve Earl’s Grey at Harrods teashops. Billowing banners announce that the airport has been declared the best in the world (in the 15-25 million passenger category), ahead of San Deigo, Zurich, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Downtown KL looks like a concentrated corner of Manhattan. The soaring twin Petronas Towers, sheathed in glass and stainless steel, are the city’s crowning glory and glitter at night like pieces of jewellery. In a forest 300 km north of the city, Britain’s award-winning architect Norman Forster has finished designing a technology university with Malaysian partners, linking its buildings under a vast canopy that is described as “high-tech, emblematic architecture … in a rapidly developing nation”.
Complete at Business Standard
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