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Between Beauty and the Beasts

Your imagination is limited only by your vision.

The building you see in the picture above is none other than Capers by YTL, a household name in Malaysia and a multi-disciplined conglomerate of sorts. To some it may be a space age building out of its place, to others it’s an architectural marvel, still to some it’s just another building. But to the community in Sentul, it’s something to be proud of.

It would be safe to say that folks in the Sentul address would never have thought such towering and iconic skyscraper would one day be part of their heritage and culture, attracting the attention of not just property developers and architects, but also of the eyes from other darling neighbourhoods in good old KL.

This shot was taken on an unassuming afternoon over the weekend. We stopped for a while to check out the surroundings as my wife and I had about two hours to spare. In such a contrast to its surroundings, I must say hats off to the people who dared to dream.

To be honest and as a homegrown KL boy, Sentul was only popular for its linkage to Gombak which could lead you to Mimaland (the waterpark before Sunway Lagoon) and Genting Highlands. It was also a notorious neighbourhood, almost the equivalent of Bronx in the US. The infamous rice wine of todi, which in all likelihood may still be one of Sentul’s magnets today that have served more than just the railway folks in the vicinity.

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But this article is not about that. I was drawn to write because of the proprietor’s appetite for risks and adventure. Forget about their bold directive because every company has that. But to defy the odds and build something like this and risk being ridiculed for a silly construction, it takes balls of steel to do it. Granted that it may have succeeded previously with the condos of Sentul East and West as well as making an artsy point at KLPac, Capers in itself is still a respectable and daring move to “Dubai” this once lousy address.

Having taken that shot, I wonder today, how many would take the bold step to reconstruct one’s life amidst the shambles and mess that surrounds us? Would you go ahead to paint and cook replacing the desk bound conservative customer service job that pays you consistently? Will you climb the hill and risk your life in place of the glitzy 5-star office space you occupy right now? How far will you leap? How wide will you go? How long will you walk?

Between this beauty and its surrounding beasts, the fine line between them is really the silver lining that shines forth for them. For your life, how then will you shape that beauty out from the beast?

Capers (foreground) & Fennel (background) standing together looking quite like Optimus Prime and company. Shot taken from another angle on the 4th October 2017.

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