Cycling through Malaysia on 3 dollars a day!

I was having lunch with a couple of friends in Harvard Square when they invited me to attend a talk about a fellow student who had done a cycling trip from Singapore up to Malaysia on a budget of 3 dollars a day for 30 days last year. With nothing but graduation parties to attend, I decided to go, quietly murmuring to myself that I will be out in 10 minutes and how wrong I was!

This was fascinating stuff. Sudhir Vadaketh, a Singaporean currently studying at Kennedy School, intrigued by the divide between Malaysia and Singapore and worried about the apathy of Malaysians and Singaporeans towards an active participation in the political process, decided to take a bike ride through Malaysia on a shoestring budget- to interview people along the way, get their perspective on relations between the two countries, try and understand the world from their lens and see whether it made sense. Clearly what he learnt was important-
a) Political boundaries accentuate and exaggerate stereotypes. Politicians cultivate these stereotypes for their own gain.
b) The policy of affirmative action has only served to create more racial divides in Malaysia. Singapore, following a more secular meritocratic approach to economic development, has been able to create a social fabric where race may be an issue but never one to take centerstage in either business dealings or social interactions.
c) We are sometimes not very grateful for the kind of 'creature' comforts that we enjoy 24 hrs of the day.

Having lived in Singapore for five years (and worked in Malaysia on consulting projects), I do agree with some of his observations. The medium and the market through which he plans to create wider awareness of his road trip need more refinement in my view. He is planning to write book that is meant for distribution in Singapore and Malaysia. For one, he should market it to a wider audience beyond these two countries. India and Pakistan face very similar issues for instance. I can see a lot of Indians getting quite buzzed by this idea. Secondly, instead of going for a book that some people may find too expensive to purchase, he could divide his journey into 10 newspaper columns covering three days each or something similar. This could then be translated into the vernacular newspapers as well so that it reaches a wider audience.

Having said that, I greatly admire someone who is able to not only conceptualize and talk, but do something of this nature. It is physically and emotionally demanding. More importantly, the goal of building a human connection that transcends our stereotypes of caste, class, religion and nationality is something which is an incredibly noble endeavor and needs to be applauded by everyone who cares about our survival and development.

I really am glad I went for this talk. It was an hour well spent!