TTIX -2013: Taman Metropolitan Kepong

It was 20th January ’13, the day the expatriate Indian community of Kuala Lumpur was waiting for with anticipation. This day was scheduled to be the first family get-together for the community  There was nothing much official about this event except for its name TTIX-2013 which stands for “Twin Tower Indian Expats”. It was an endeavor to bring together the entire Indian expat community residing or working in  and around the landmark structure of the city and get to know each other better, with the theme “Hum Sab Saath Hain” (We are all together)!!

This event was organized at Taman Metropolitan, Kepong. It’s conveniently located at approximately 15 kilometers from KL Sentral and takes about 20 minutes to get there by taxi. Anyone will take a liking to the place almost instantaneously.  It was a beautiful open public park and is not only clean and green but also had a-lot of entertainment around too, like equipment for exercising, play area for kids, a serene breathtaking lake where fishing goes on and above all kite flying which is not too famous at other parks.

To start with, it was quite a hot and sultry day, however, that didn't affect people’s enthusiasm for the planned events.  There were about 70 people in the gathering of all age groups from the youngest being 4 months to oldest being in her 70’s.  There was a wide spread of food and soft drinks available (unfortunately, this was a non-alcoholic gathering being a public park, which I guess was disappointing for men, but brightened-up the ladies faces!!).  Besides the food ordered, there were also a few homemade items which were quite delicious and flew like hotcakes…

The activities started around 11:00 a.m., with the first being tug-of-war for kids. It was a task in itself to get the kids together for the games, as they were amused by the swing, slides and the vast area around for them to run about and play…It’s always fun to watch kids, whether playing games or doing their silly things… This was followed by the same event for the macho-men, while neither of the competing sides won, and ended up with the score - 1:1, actually the only loser was the rope..  It sounded like a good beginning to an eventful day.

This was followed by many games like lime and spoon race for kids and ladies, balance the book on your head and there were also games for couples too.. It was a total fun day!

  

The one game that drove up the men’s spirits was Cricket, which was discussed, planned and hyped about even before the party could start.  Soon after the group activities the men and boys were ready with their bats and balls!! The passion and emotion of the players were fun to watch and wished that the Indian cricket team could play with half that passion, I’m sure we could be the best team in the world someday! By the time the game of cricket was over, it was time for lunch and dark clouds had suddenly appeared in the sky and before we realized it, the rain came pouring down…

So it was a good time to take a break for lunch. The food quality was good and it offered a wide variety for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. There were special items for kids as well (less spicy).  The rain continued while everyone was enjoying their hot food, under the tent.  Considering the unpredictable weather in KL, three big strong tents were put-up with fan connections and round tables and chairs which seated the whole crowd.  The arrangements made were comfortable and made in such a way that even in case of rain nothing gets interrupted.

Lunch was followed by a game of Bingo for the adults, while children were engaged in a painting competition, whilst on the outside it was still raining and was a beautiful sight to see..

Once the rain stopped, the kids were waiting in anticipation to fly their attractive kites and were too excited.  Simultaneously family pictures were captured for memories…and needless to say our photographer for the day Amol has done an awesome job at it with clicking over 2000 pics, some of which are shared in this blog.

There were a couple of more activities and it was Tea time…nothing like having hot masala chai, with garam garam Samosa’s and Jalebi’s on a rainy day…it was lovely and all enjoyed the timely tea…

The day wound-up at around 6:00 p.m.  and souvenir were distributed to each family and gifts for children, in reminiscences of our enjoyable get-together. It was a great fun-filled day and I’m sure everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did… Hope we could have many more socials in the near future as well…thanks to all who have taken the initiative and effort to make this a successful event.