Sitting alone in this triangular-shaped restaurant, looking out at the junction of Jalan Semarak-Jalan Tun Razak brings back fond memories.
I remember we had to cross the busy road every evening to get to the public field at Jalan Puan for our football sessions. It was our routine for the five years that we stayed at Asrama Dr Latiff or 'ADL', starting in the year when Kuala Lumpur was declared a federal territory in 1974.
The Yayasan Selangor (Selangor Foundation) hostel has since been demolished to make way for a flood mitigation project. The sight of the bulldozer tearing down the four-storey building still haunt my mind as I had passed through the place to the office that particular morning.
But this restaurant -- K.M. Hameed – still remains after all these years.
With high-rise office buildings within its vicinity providing a steady stream of patrons, the restaurant, located in an area we called ‘island’, had been given a new lease of life.
It could expect more business with the soon-to-be completed towering office block, close-by, on the opposite side of the ever-busy Jalan Tun Razak.
Although the restaurant owner, Haji Jamaludin has entrusted the running of the business to his sons -- Restoran K.M.Hameed, named after his father, remains a favourite place for many because of its strategic location.
Jalan Semarak (formerly known as Jalan Gurney) is home to a number of important establishments including the police training centre, Felda headquarters, survey and mapping department, TM training centre and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia KL-city campus. It also leads to the Defence Ministry.
As I threw my view to a distant, I could clearly see the sign of progress with the Ampang Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (AKLEH) running above a substantial stretch of Jalan Tun Razak.
That same highway cuts across the air, close to where ADL once stood below, providing shelter and hope for selected students from around Selangor to pursue their secondary education in the federal capital.
