The onion man made me think of the revolving door of people, shops and trends my husband and I have encountered/experienced in the 15 years we’ve lived in our condominium in Kuala Lumpur.  

We have remainers. Owner-occupiers like us and many of our neighbours. We are mostly lift or lobby buddies. The usual meeting place where we chat and catch-up. We have expatriates. They stay for a few years, then move on to the next posting, next country. Like our two-term management committee chairman. He was a likeable person. We have locals and foreign nationals, who work in and around the city. Some we know and/or knew. One of whom we knew was a friendly Iranian couple with a dog named Toffee.    

Our condominium is part of a mixed-used/integrated development, built in 1997. It comprises a 33-storey residence, a 25-storey insurance company, commercial offices, clinics, restaurants, and one restaurant-bar. The ground floor lobby of the condominium leads onto a piazza. Yes, piazza or public square that boasts a centrecourt/space, surrounded by five office blocks.

The multileveled centrecourt/space is host to an Instagram worthy fountain (this is true) with cascading waters, palm trees, potted plants, and a tall steel structure (I’m not sure what it is). Anyways, what’s encouraging is its well-maintained and inviting. Particularly as the development is much older that most of the gleaming high-rise buildings near us. The centrecourt/space has many steps/levels that double up as sitting areas for a few sun worshipping office-goers at lunch time. Smokers, meanwhile, congregate at the southern two corners that now appear to be their ‘designated’ smoking area. Better to smoke their lungs out and pollute the air in the open than in offices and restaurants.

The five office blocks are made up of 10-12 storey buildings with an impressive 430 office units. Naturally, there are throngs of working people, Monday to Friday. Some drive and park at the designated ground and basement parking bays. Some arrive via the LRT or MRT, which is a 10-minute walk. Others grab a Grab or walk to the office. It’s a little quieter on Saturday, and almost peaceful on Sunday. The process starts all over again on Monday.

We’ve observed people, come and go. Shops and offices, open and close. My husband used to see the onion man, yes, the onion man, every morning on his way to work about 8am. He was still at his workplace, a catering company, when my husband and I returned from dinner around 9pm. He did 12 or 13-hour days. We reckoned his life back home must have been hard. Why else would he have left his country for a job peeling onions. He wasn’t a local, and he looked like he could be in his 50’s, with a family. We don’t see him anymore. He has since been replaced.

Next to the catering company is a restaurant-bar that’s closed during the day. The drapes are drawn, and when the door is open, there is no one around, no customers. How do I know? I peek inside whenever I walk past. The restaurant-bar advertises Indian food on its frontage. The décor is dark with black sofas and darkish maroon curtains. Interestingly, it comes alive at night.

Guests/customers leave the restaurant-bar around the same time as my husband starts work in the morning. I’ve heard music and chatter about 5am’ish, when I was waiting on the ground floor for sister number 2’s very early arrival from Australia, back in August. Mainly Africans. Their nights out stretch into the mornings.  As an aside, a colleague once told me that his elderly dad heaved praise on a group of young people whom he had seen during his early morning walk. His dad assumed the young ones were industrious and off to work early when in fact they were returning from a night on the town or city.

Beside the restaurant-bar is a one-man manned tobacco distributing company. I’ve only seen the one and same person at the company lobby since it opened. Yes, I know…I was thinking the same… why tobacco? Along the same row, there’s also a well-appointed and fairly well-frequented Chinese healthy food and traditional herbal tea shop. Three of these four units are locally owned but probably foreign run. And, only the healthy food cum herbal tea shop was in operations pre-pandemic. Previous tenants were a Turkish restaurant, a coffee-shop type restaurant that had brisk business but closed suddenly, and a 7-Eleven that has moved to a more prominent location within the development.

In the early days, there were a few more bars, a video games shop/outlet and even a snooker place. Popular now are convenience stores and aesthetic care facilities. There are also more medical and dental clinics. Two weeks ago, a Chinese-Muslim noodle place opened. It replaced a long-established but rather unimpressive ice-cream parlour.

The doors keep revolving.