Malaysia: My Selangor Story 2013 (04) - A Nice Surprise at Archana Curry House

After Heritage Walk tour, we went back to Little India for our lunch at Archana Curry House, an Indian restaurant famous for its curry and banana leaf rice. Everyone in the group was seated in a reserved area at the back of the restaurant and waited for lunch to be served. I noted there were two gentlemen seating and enjoying their lunch quietly at a table behind mine. Not long after our lunch arrived, in walked a guy who looked familiar to me but I couldn’t quite recall the name. And then Safri, our tour guide, stood up and made a surprise announcement that Mr Manoharan Malayalam, the Selangor State Assembly representative for Kota Alam Shah, is in the house.

Aah! No wonder the guy looked familiar.

The surprise didn’t just end there. After a short speech, Mr Manoharan also announced that the 2 gentlemen who were having lunch quietly at the table behind me are actually the big boss of Madura and Gayathiri, two of the largest businesses in Little India and in Klang. That was not the surprise though. Mr Manoharan announced and invited all of us over to their shops right after lunch to receive a free sari, a type of cloth which is part of a traditional costume usually worn by Indian ladies, each.

Everyone automatically clapped, got very excited and couldn't wait for lunch to be over.

There were no more tired faces.

Soon after we finished our fulfilling lunch and after thanking Mr S. Subramanian of Archana Curry House, we went a few doors down the street to Madura Store. There we were given a short briefing about the business, which specialises in imitation jewelleries.

Mr Manoharan showing some imitation jewelleries

Towards the end, the owner announced a gift for everyone in the form of “arm decoration”, which sometimes is used by (usually) Indian ladies in place of henna tattoos on their arms. More clapping and happy faces especially among the girls in the group while most of the guys apart from Tahid maybe, gave a confused look, heh heh!

Afterwards we walked to Gayathiri store and browsed through saris after saris. Two of our girls were picked as a model and we were given a demonstration on how to wear saris. It was interesting to note that while “ordinary” saris (which are for daily wear) can cost from as low as MYR30, saris for brides can cost anywhere between MYR500 and jaw dropping MYR5,000. They are no doubt beautiful though.

Before we left, we were all given a sari each but since no one is getting married in the near future, nobody actually got a MYR5,000 sari ;-) Rest assured however the ones that we got were no less beautiful.

There were happy faces all around, including among the guys even though you could still probably detect and see some of them asking themselves, “What am I going to do with this sari?” ha ha!

Time to earn some brownie points with the ladies in your life, guys ;-) 

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For further information:
Archana Curry House: No. 62, Jalan Tengku Kelana, 41000 Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan | Tel. No.: +603 3373 1867

Madura Store Sdn. Bhd.: No. 64, Jalan Tengku Kelana, 41000, Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan | Tel. No.: +603 3373 9696

Gayathiri Holdings Sdn. Bhd.: No. 88-90, Jalan Tengku Kelana, 41000, Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan | Tel. No.: +603 3373 1717 | www.gayathiri.com.my

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