HAPPY DEEPAVALI

17th. October 2009
Today, it's the Festival of Lights, that is, Deepavali ;- "The light over darkness" or shall I say, "The Good over Evil" I always remember this joyous and happy occasion which my hindu friends celebrated "this Festival of Lights". My indian friends and their family would go to the nearby temples to offer prayers and blessing for their families for the whole year. As always, we would visit their homes at around 9.30 a.m. onwards to wish them "Happy Deepavali". We were ushered into the house where plenty of food were served such as kutup mayam, moruku, dosai, nasi dagang, nasi lemak, roti canai, dhal, etc. etc. As youngster, we were having a wonderful time together with our indian classmates and friends. Then, we would cycled together to visit another indian classmate to wish him "Happy Deepavali". We would ended up visiting four to five homes after which we were reluctant to visit another family due to too much good food and we were full to the brim.
It brought back nostalgia where classmates and friends could easily mixed with one another, visiting their homes whenever there was festivals such as Deepavali, Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Christmas. The reason was because of the English medium school educational system where we could communicate with each other easily and there was no real racial polarisation among the races at that time. It was a laid back environment to nulture tolerance and respect for each other. We could easily visit each other houses without any taboo or misgivings.
I pray that my children has this tolerance and respect for other races where they could easily mix with each other whilst they are young so that they will grow up to be a well adjusted person later in life where they will have close friends, classmates or colleagues at work from other races.