Malaysians Students Jam @ Pelita Nasi Kandar

Date: 15th March 2009

Time: 12 noon

Venue: Pelita Nasi Kandar, T Nagar.

It was a crisp morning, and the atmosphere was perfect for a casual meet up at the neighbourhood mamak, for a cup of teh tarik, and probably some nasi kandar. Being in Chennai, the neighbourhood mamak is of course, Pelita Nasi Kandar, the usual Malaysian hangout.

Organized by Sangeetha, who leads the student affairs and welfare bureau of the Malaysian Students Association of Chennai, the gathering was more of a laid back get-together for all the Malaysian students to meet and interact.The crowd started trickling in at about 12.30 or so, and there was a pleasant surprise waiting for all of us.

Dato Ramesh, director of Pelita Nasi Kandar, happened to be in town. He bumped into us and looking at the crowd of hungry students, he spontaneously said that he will host the lunch, and all of us had nasi kandar, on the house! Not to mention ice kacang as dessert to top that!The students were from all over Chennai, from universities such as Saveetha Dental College, Ragas Dental Collge, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College, Sri Ramacanchra Medical College, St Joseph College and Loyola College.

There were also students from VInayaka Missions University in Salem and Manipal Medical College as well as NIT, Trichy.It felt like we were all back home, catching up with friends, over some nasi kandar. The mood was lively with students getting to know each other and some were just happy to release some steam from the hectic college life that we all lead. After devouring the oh-so-delicious lunch laid out in front of us, some of the students left while others stayed on to continue socialize.

It came to a point where we were asked to leave the upstairs area and move downstairs as they had to clean up the mess we created.The lepak-ing continued with more teh tarik and stories outside, as Pelita is the only place in Chennai where we can stay on for hours and simply enjoy the Malaysian air. Then the crowd started to disburse, leaving the key people of MSA Chennai to do their post mortem about the day’s gathering.

Everyone left Pelita with a sense of satisfaction, and a sense of joy of having met fellow Malaysians.

Prepared by,
Sandiya Supramaniam