Saturday noon I stopped by Central Market to rent a John Grisham for my upcoming Raya vacation. After getting a book, the shopping frenzy of the festival got the best of me and I ended up buying myself a RM6-00 bead bangle made of coconut shell.

Then I made my way to Kota Raya shopping complex. As I walked towards Kota Raya from Central Market, a thought came to mind: That's the place which used to be the place to be. That thought, I realised as I was approaching the shopping complex, was not accurate. It is still the place to be, but for the new batch.

Who are these people who make up the new batch? They are the people who took my place. I used to be them. Fourteen years ago I used to go in and browse in the shopping complex while waiting for my Sri Jaya 238 bus to take me to my rented room in Petaling Jaya. I never spent any money there because the goods there were too expensive for me. I could only afford a RM2.00 chicken rice and RM0.10 iced water for lunch at the hawker center on the rooftop of Central Market. Or fried fish with rice and some accompaniment of ulam and sambal at the Hilton corner. Don't know where Hilton corner is? Then you haven't lived long enough in KL.

I have moved on since. Now I drive my car to my own house elsewhere, so I don't take the bus from Kota Raya anymore. The new batch will move on too one day. And they will be replaced by a fresh batch.

The cycle goes on. And Kota Raya lives.