It was early yesterday morning when my handphone vibrated tantalisingly in my pants' pocket, signifying an incoming SMS. It was from a lawyer friend who said he was going to have breakfast at Petronas Twin Towers and invited me to join he and his girlfriend.

I replied that I already had mine at the Faber Towers, and that I was well on my way to KL Tower. And since I work at Jade Tower and he at University Tower, I simply couldn't resist the temptation to add that we seem to make shining examples of this new catchphrase that is the Towering Malays .

So, what is this Towering Malay phenomenon all about? Malays are hardly tall enough to be described as 'towering', a fact which I can readily vouch to. Some time ago, I had the unfortunate experience being on board a Eurostar bullet train from Amsterdam to London. It had a routine brief stopover in Brussels and before I knew it, the coach was cramped with big, burly and rough football supporters off to watch a local but important match.

For someone who used to literally 'walk tall' in Malaysia, I felt strangely dwarfed and intimidated by the noisy half drunk six-footers. Who wouldn't, when your head is just up to their broad shoulders. If someone dared to try and instill the idea of a Towering Malay at that particular time, I'd immediately ask somebody to shove him into that coach with me right there and then.