Deepavali, Best Indian Food dan Rajnikanth

In my whole life Deepavali was nothing to me. No special memory with Deepavali. Not to say that I'm a Hindu, but like what people used to say, not even 'tumpang celebrate'. Last week was the breakthrough. I went to 2 houses to celebrate Deepavali. Yes 2 houses woi! All thanks to my mum's students yang jemput dia datang celebrate kat rumah masing2. Ada makan2 katanya.

Makan2? Yummy.

Rumah yang pertama (hari first) ni special sikit because once we arrived there the TV was showing the ever-legendary Rajnikanth in the robocop style movie: Endhiran. Gila baq hang...memang level 999 punya osem movie tu. Ridiculous tahap filem tamil tu biasa la. Tapi dia punya CGI, effect2 dia memang level near Hollywood. Sangat power...ternganga nganga jugak aku layan movie tu.

Bayangkan, movie Tamil dah boleh power macam tu. Malaysia (baca:melayu)? Cinta sana sini. Hantu komedi sana sini. Sampah sana sini. 

Sampai part makan, memang delicious walaupun dishes yang dihidangkan tu simple saja. Sambil makan2 tu bersembang pasal anak yang sakit, tukang urut power yang boleh sembuhkan resdung/selsema tanpa guna sebarang ubat. Ini hal serius. Guna teknik klasik turun temurun. Nak percaya? Memang percaya juga, because think about it zaman dulu mana ada medication moden2 macam sekarang. 

Esoknya, kami ke rumah yang kedua. Ini special.

The house is relatively ok. Okay some may say small, some may say okay. Doesn't matter because it's very clean and tidy. Serious bro, sangat bersih dan kemas. The first one is clean and tidy too, but this one wins a little!  Cannot detect that distinctive indian house punya odour. As we arrived, we all sembang2 sat, then terus diajak makan. 

Ho yeah makan...semua lauk2 dihidangkan dalam bekas aluminium (ada nama dia, lupa dah) yang memang klasik indian style. Wow!!! Dia punya lauk memang sedap habis. Kambing, ayam, udang, gulai, dalca...semua A+!!! Best indian food ever. Tak tipu punya. Oh tuan rumah (the wife) yang masak sendiri semua tu. Makan saja!!!! Nothing to worry!

Bekas makanan sebijik macam ni!

I really enjoyed this Deepavali invitation (actually, it's more like jemputan makan). At first I was a bit lazy2 to go, just want to stay at home play games with my brother. Thanks to the paksaan, I follow jugak. And there were some things that I envy. At the first house, anak lelaki tuan rumah tu sedang amik SPM. So dia ada jemput kawan2 kelas dia datang makan kat rumah. Coincidentally his friends arrived during our stay there. Nampaklah kawan2 dia dari semua bangsa dan jantina. Laki pmpuan semua ada. Melayu Cina India semua ada. Jealousy di situ. And a bit faith in racial harmony restored there.

Tuan rumah bagi kedua2 rumah sangatlah ramah dan baik. They treat us very well and sincere. Even to the point that my mum said to us that the next time raya puasa, she wants to invite both families to come to our house and she will cook special dishes for them. Like old people saying, ' buat baik dibalas baik'. 'Orang berbudi, kita berbahasa'.

Some people may say,

 "aih awat hang p celebrate Deepavali, hang nak jadi hindu ka? Jangan pi celebrate, jangan jadi serupa dengan kaum2 lain, nanti nescaya kamu tergolong dengan kaum tu." 

Bullshit. I don't have the nas2 agama, hujah2 agama untuk dikedepankan but what I had done was only go and memenuhi jemputan untuk makan di rumah mereka. More to mengeratkan persahabatan sesama manusia. Tapi if I (we) all follow the larangan tu then I believe all muslim (baca:melayu) are all arrogant and katak bawah tempurung. Live happily in their own sacred but thin bubble. Other people will see Islam as one rigid and extreme religion. Tak suka...tak suka...

Overall, I am very happy. It opened my eyes a bit. It gives hope a bit. My age still green, so this may be what we call as 'learning experience'. To end this post, I'd like to wish (though it's 2 weeks late) Happy Deepavali to everyone =)