Individual Reflection

The little India trail was indeed a fun and engaging one which I enjoyed tremendously. I have been to Little India so many times before be it for shopping or threading and thought that going on the trail and figuring the history behind the places would have been an easy task for me but I was wrong. I came across places which I never thought existed in Little India for example, I never came across places like the Chinese villa before and I also learnt a lot of new things like realizing the fact that little India was not a place predominated only by the Indians before but different races also resided and made a living there. Though it rained the trail was definitely a new experience for all of us as each of us made a special discovery about the place.

Little India is really rich in its historical background and now I have a new found appreciation for the place. For example, one of the special discoveries I made was the fact that there were so many places of worship other than the Hindu temples in the past. The fact that there were also Chinese temples (Leong San See Temple), mosques (Abdul Gafoor Mosque) churches (Church of True Light) and also Buddhist Temples (Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple) in Little India in the past goes to show that the place was racially and religiously harmonious and rich. This just goes to show that our racially harmonious society began right even before the 1950s.

Moreover, I realized that every road we came across had a historically rich background to it. For example, Buffalo Road was really used for cattle rearing activities in the past! And also Campbell Lane was named after Sir Colin Campbell who played a significant part in military campaigns such as the Sikh War. Every single road and lane had an intriguing story behind it and this was of great interest to me and my group mates.

Overall, I am very pleased to have been on this trail and feel that it was a good learning journey for me. I would also organize such trails for my students in future as it was not only exciting but also educational. I feel that going on this trail and personally making discoveries about it makes a greater impact on a learner as the individual is personally engaged in the process of learning. I also feel that it strengthened the bond I had with my group mates and made me a better team player as each of us tried to keep the spirit high and be enthusiastic about the trail despite the rainy weather.

Salimah Haniffa (: