THE hospitality of Malaysians never fails to impress me. The people are sincere, modest, disciplined, cheerful and welcoming.
I first set foot in Malaysia in 1970. My first impressions were confirmed during the 15 years that I worked at University of Malaya.
I made many new friends. Students invited me to their homes to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri. I was always warmly greeted by their relatives and neighbours.
I remember my stay in the village of Pondok Desa (Kedah). I was invited there by my student Adib. And I went to Melaka at the invitation of my student, Ong Siew Yin, to collect material for an article about the Baba-Nyonya culture. I got to know her aunt, Ong Eng Choo. I also spent the night at her aunt's flat.
Then there was my former student, Tie Teck, who invited me over to Sarikei in Sarawak. He was working at a school there.
I returned to Moscow in 2016, but have gone back to Malaysia several times.
When I was in Kuala Lumpur last year, I went to the headquarters of Persatuan Penulis Nasional Malaysia for a poetry recital. I found myself again in a friendly atmosphere.
It was raining heavily, and I was very lucky that the poet Wanrazuhar (or Mohd Radzuan Ibrahim) offered me a ride home.
I did not expect that along the way he would take me to a shop and treat me to durian.
Wanrazuhar is a lawyer by profession and a very busy person, but his soul is full of poetry. He finds time to write poetry, which is published as collected editions.
He is also the founder and president of an association of poets, which in Malay is simply called A Poet (Pemuisi). He finds time for everything, including publishing the organisation's monthly magazine.
Even Russian poets, including Vadim Terekhin, co-chairman of the Union of Writers of Russia, have had translations of their poems published in this magazine.
And this year in Kuala Lumpur I met with lecturer Zainatul Aida, whom I previously knew only on the Internet.
She took me to events at her university (a seminar on the singer Datuk Sharifah Aini and a classical music concert) and to the Music Museum, treating me along the way to my favourite Malay dish, laksa.
And we met again at the Russian Cultural Centre at the presentation of my Malay translation of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol's story, 'Taras Bulba', published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
I try to be like Malaysians and surprise them with Russian hospitality, too.
In the fall of 2016, I unexpectedly received a text message from my friend Mohd Khair Ngadiron, the then managing director of Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia, that he was in Moscow with his wife Maizon Jaffar.
Despite a drizzle, we walked along central Tverskaya Street, stopping at the monuments of famous writers and poets Alexander Pushkin, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Anton Chekhov.
We admired Red Square and St Basil's Cathedral, visited the famous GUM shopping centre and Izmailovo Fair, and had lunch at the famous Ukrainian restaurant, Korchma. In the evening, my wife Svetlana and I hosted them to dinner at our home.
When my wife and I went to Kuala Lumpur the next year, Khair invited us to his home.
They say that friendship is when you hold someone's hand and feel their heart. I believe hospitality is Malaysians' heart and soul.
Hospitality and friendship are the key to friendly relations. Let such relations continue to develop between Malaysia and Russia.
Pogadaev, writing from Russia, is a former lecturer at University of Malaya
