FARIZA ARIFFIN, a Muslim of Indian descent—who also happens to be my sister, had a eureka moment after watching a Chinese play at Auditorium A, KOMTAR, earlier this year.
“After the last bow, I took out my mobile phone and Googled ‘Indian Theatre in Malaysia’, only to find one staged in KL in 2015. The play was in Tamil, and knowing that Indians speak more than just Tamil, I felt compelled to bring these other dialects and languages, spoken by hundreds of Indians in Malaysia, to the stage,” Fariza shared during one of our family meet-ups.
From here, her idea expanded—she wanted to showcase the Malayalam, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telegu languages. Indian culture being so colourful and bold, she wanted to share the traditional attires, music and dance too.
“Our culture is more than just Bharatanatyam dance and music; I thought we should have stage plays, too.”
