The first time I heard the word " Deepavali " was when I was about 10 or 11 years old . The Indian culture was never exposed nor experienced by us in our environment . Words like " kolam " just don't exist in my dictionary .
Reason being Hindus were very , very , very few and far in between in our town .
As a child , my first encounter with an Indian was a Singh man . He sold ' kacang '....or nuts . He had this simple wooden box up on his bicycle . This box had several compartments ,,,for him to put in the various types of nuts . He was known as the ' kacang potet " man . To buy , he had this ready made cone shaped paper ...in it he would put in the nuts ...worth any amount you had told him . At that time a 10 cents worth of nuts can be quite filling . Thinking back , he did not use any spoon to handle the nuts ...just his bare hands . My father used to remind us to be extra careful where cleanliness is concerned . ' You never know yunno ...he could have used his fingers to pick his nose ...what if he didn't wash his hands ? ' Father's words fell on deaf ears ..............
My next encounter with the Indians was when I was at secondary school . I remembered few names like Satwant Singh , George Kuruvilla , PJ Joseph and Ava Bhattacharya . George and PJ Joseph were Christians . Am wondering where they are now ...these few Indians who were indeed a rare breed in my town .
As I grew older , I crossed paths and made friends with more Indians ...with names like ...Mrs. Somar , Mala and Mr. Narayanasamy . I never had the chance to observe them in celebrating this festival . Strange how events turnt out , I am now staying in the midst of an Indian neighborhood . And that make me and my family the odd ones out ....perhaps to them we are the rare species from Borneo island . They were eager to know us and we were glad to have known them too . We spoke the typical Malaysian lingo ...Bahasa Malaysia plus English all thrown in . We understood each other and that matters .
Now my neighbours are in a festive mood . There were the buying of new cloths before Deepavali as well as the preparation of food and sweets .The nightly playing of fire crackers and sparklers are there too ....occasionally set off .
Its a beautiful sight now ; their houses are adorned with beautiful lights .....
lots ..and lots of lights....
hung at their door entrance....
and their patios.....
and some in the streets . I can't resist but walked through these canopy of lights .
As my son and I walked through we were greeted by these nice young men who welcomed us to their neighborhood . I bet they were surprised by our presence there ...which is rather rare . Local folks don't do that as they are accustomed to such sights .
Busy , busy and busy ...last minute preparations ....making kolams seems to be a must for each household .
The women are an artistic lot as they created beautiful kolams during Deepavali eve .
Like any other festivals , there is good business when such occasions comes round . Bizz - vali ...( Business valli ) .
Today the praying bells ranged louder ...and incense are burnt far longer in the day .
Happy Deepavali to all my Hindu friends and neighbours . May there always be peace , prosperity and good health in this neighborhood .
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