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Satyameva Jayate

Have you seen the cult movie “Quiz Show”? Its about the scandal surrounding the 1950s TV quiz show “21”, a precursor of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. The show’s sponsor Geritol threatened to pull the plug, unless the ratings of “21” improved. So, the show was rigged by its producers in NBC, who favored some contestants by providing them the right answers ahead of time.

In the movie, Congressional Investigator Dick Goodwin can’t help liking  tainted “21” contestant Charles Van Doren. But, Goodwin is an idealist & like most painfully ethical people, is unforgiving of lapses in conduct. Strangely, he is unable to denounce Van Doren. He struggles with his conscience, unwilling to bring Van Doren to justice. For Van Doren isn’t a scumbag – he’s an intellectual, a writer & a lecturer in Columbia, possessed with real erudition.

As Satyam unravels, I find myself unwittingly in Goodwin’s shoes. Forgive me dear Lord, for I’m unable to dislike Ramalinga Raju. I’ve never really been a fan of Mr Raju, but there’s enough of Van Doren in him – privileged upbringing , clean-cut appearance, soft-spoken gentlemanly airs. And unadulterated ability.

I hardly ever break laws. I doubt if I even jay-walk. I don’t cheat on taxes, even when ample opportunities present themselves to me. I don’t lie, unless I have to withhold the truth for a “greater good”. I neither litter the streets nor jump the red when no one’s watching. This very same person – I – can’t bear to see a frazzled Mr Raju in hand-cuffs. The sight somehow – deeply torments me.

My family is astonished by my reaction. My grief is misplaced, they tell me. The fraud is – reportedly – to the tune of $1 Billion. Not a paltry sum that can be put down to a transitory error in judgment. Many investors have lost their shirts. Customers are left high & dry, as Satyamites attempt a mass exodus to rival companies. Industry sources say that about 500,000 people – Customers, Employees & Investors – are impacted by the ignominious failure of Satyam.

It took Mr Raju 20 years to build Satyam, painfully, brick by brick. He started his business with 20 associates in 1987 & slowly built it, with blood, sweat & toil, to a 53,000 strong organization, whose ADR was listed in NYSE. Yet, it took less than a month for everything to unravel. The very associates who fondly called him “Raju Garu” are wailing & sobbing, because suddenly, their future looks very bleak. The very associates who were proud to be a part of Satyam, hide their faces in misery & flee from relentless media attention. Some of them have received eviction notices from their lenders, because they can’t pay the mortgages on their homes anymore.

Stunned customers have reacted in many ways. Some have called Satyam’s competitors, begging them to take over projects entrusted to the care of Satyam. Some of them may cancel their contracts with Satyam. And a few staunch supporters have expressed their solidarity, by declaring their intent to continue working with Satyam.

Why, oh why did Mr Raju throw it all away? In an attempt to find some answers, I turned to the old staples, Scriptures & Literature.

According to the “Old Testament”, Devil started out in Heaven. He was called “Lucifer” – which roughly translated means, “Morning Star” or “Light Bearer”. He was God’s most beloved Angel & the most beautiful of them all. Unfortunately, his pride turned to hubris. On a fateful day, Lucifer decided to snatch supremacy from God. He cobbled together an army of other disgruntled Angels & waged an acrimonious battle against God.

Arch-angel Michael led the onslaught on behalf of God, defeated Lucifer & his minions soundly & expelled them from Heaven. God doomed these Fallen Angels to eternal torment. Lucifer had a new handle now – Satan, meaning “Adversary”.

Mr Raju was once – not long ago – acclaimed as a visionary. He was a powerful, politically connected man. His lieutenants struggled to keep pace with him, as he moved too quickly for their taste. A bold man, with an audacious dream that struck gold. He was the recipient of numerous awards – organizations absolutely fell over each other to laud him. Oh, he was also the Chief of NASSCOM, India’s high-profile Consortium for the IT & BPO industries. People swooned over him wherever he went. And now, shunned by everyone, he has no shoulder to lean on.

Some may think I’ve been taken in by his extra-ordinary letter of resignation. Who knows, maybe they are right. I’m quoting from his letter here:

• It is with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice
• Every attempt made to eliminate the gap failed.
• It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.
• That neither myself, nor the Managing Director (including our spouses) sold any shares in the last eight years — excepting for a small proportion declared and sold for philanthropic purposes.

Here comes the clincher:

• l am now prepared to subject myself to the laws of the land and face consequences thereof.

There exists, in all of us, a desire to see a little bit of ourselves in others. We all hope to live up to our cherished beliefs, even – or especially – under adverse circumstances. An inner chord buried deep in our Cardiac muscles is moved by Contrition. If Mr Raju worded his letter to tap into this instinct in people & thereby evoke their compassion, he got it dead right.

I skimmed thru the play “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe, which paints a bleak picture of what happens to people with over-reaching ambition. In the play, Faustus, an eminent scholar strikes a deal with Satan. He sells his soul to the devil, for 24 years of unbridled power & knowledge. When those 24 years are over, Faustus suddenly realizes that he has to spend a long, long time doomed to hell. Frightened, he laments thus:

Accursed Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done?
I do repent, and yet I do despair.
Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast.
What shall I do to shun the snares of death?

Did Mr Raju repent? Was his contrition real? A brilliant man, now disgraced, purely because of the choices he made. What was his mental state, when he wrote that gut-wrenching letter? How did he face the furore & the interminable wait for his doom? Why does it matter terribly to me?

Very soon, Satyam may be no more. The new board may decide to break the company into smaller chunks & sell it off. The buyer takes it all – the business, paying customers, billable employees & capable support staff. The investors may get at least part of their money back. That’s good news, in a manner of speaking. But what of the entity called Satyam?

We never know what matters to us, till we are on the verge of losing it. Our psyches are propped up by  edifices. The choice of edifices is almost unconscious, subjective & personal. The traditional may choose Religion or Rituals, while for the Avant-garde, it could be Art. The World Trade Center was such an edifice, for the ingenuity & supremacy of the Americans. I never realized how much the idea of Satyam, the fruition of one man’s dream meant to me. It was one of my edifices. To me it represented the economic upswing of India & the intrepidity of one Indian to make it big.

Let me close my soliloquy – my attempt to come to terms with the changed landscape – with these lines from Marlowe’s play, recited by the chorus when the devil carries Faustus away to hell.

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo’s laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is gone.  Regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise
Only to wonder at unlawful things,
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits,
To practise more than heavenly power permits

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The Real History of Srilanka – Part 5

Part-3 of this series dealt with the North Indian origins of the Sinhalas, which more or less coincides with the prevailing notion among islanders of their “Aryan” ancestry. Let’s explore this belief, shall we? A drama typically unfolds with the Dramatis Personae. Why should we be typical? I’ll tee off with who this post is not about.

• The North Indian immigrants were not the 1st inhabitants of Srilanka. That credit goes to the cave dwelling Balangodas: their remains are at least 34,000 years old.

• The present-day aborigines of Srilanka, the Veddas – or Wanniyala Etto as they call themselves – may have called the island their home from 18,000 BC.

• The Burghers are the descendants of European settlers that married locals. Yet another community in Srilanka has an equally eclectic mix of genes – the Colombo Chetties. Both these groups are neither Sinhala nor Tamil.

This post is not about any of them.

Immigrants Galore

When the new nation was established, many villages were founded as more land became arable. Sinhala kings needed people to perform certain specialized caste based jobs, such as weaving, jaggery making or toddy tapping. Further, they recruited mercenaries for their army. The fledgling nation had occupations that no one could neatly fit into – such as peeling cinnamon trees, native to the island. Migrant groups moved to Srilanka to fit into these niches.

Where did the kings turn to for such skilled & unskilled workers? The Eastern Seaboard of India, the Coromandel Coast, is an easy boat ride away from Srilanka. Why go elsewhere, when you could hire from the 4 Southern states? And that’s exactly what the kings did.

Enter the South Indians

It should be noted here that the Sinhala caste system is closer to the Jati system, than the Sanskrit Varna system. Quiet a few Sinhala castes are composed of South Indians & their descendants, who came over several centuries – sometimes for trade or as the soldiers of the presiding Sinhala, Pandya or Chola kings.

Continued Marriage alliances of Sinhala kings with their South Indian counterparts could only have bolstered migrations further. As late as the 18th century CE, the Sinhala rulers of Kandy preferred to marry women from the Telugu Nayaks ruling Tamil Nadu. This led to an interesting situation: the last rulers of Srilanka were Nayaks from the Balija/Kapu community. Of course, they converted to Buddhism & played an important role in the religious revivals in Srilanka.

In this post, let’s see how 3 important, influential & upwardly mobile communities in Srilanka, known as the voices of strident Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism, can trace their ancestry to South India.

Sinhalisation

Sinhalisation is the slow but sure process of assimilation, of migrant, minority communities into the Sinhala Buddhist fabric. In a sense, this means that a particular language, ethnicity & religion are deemed superior to all others, that other groups relinquish their identity to become more acceptable to the majority.

Salagama, Durava & Karava: these 3 castes were originally accorded a low status. But, they became prosperous during the colonial period. Many of them shed their caste-based jobs & occupied high positions – thus recalibrating themselves only just below the Govigamas, the most dominant caste in Srilanka.

Salagamas

Salagama (AKA Chaliya) is a caste of cinnamon peelers in the Southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka. They were also associated with cinnamon cultivation & in Kandy, with weaving. Noted cricketer Lasith Malinga is a Salagama.

Chaliya or Saliya is a caste of weavers in Northern Kerala & Southern Karnataka. It seems possible that the Sinhala kings sought skilled weavers to setup shop at various periods. Saliyas from Kerala & Karnataka moved in waves. And some of them moved onto cinnamon peeling.

Duravas

Durava or Chanda is a toddy tapping caste, that initially moved to the Southern Coast of Srilanka. Their hereditary role is coconut or palm tree climbing. It is believed that they descended from the Nadars of Tamil Nadu & the Ezhavas of Kerala. Many of them also functioned as mercenaries & soldiers for the Sinhala kings.

Its worth noting that the term “Chanda” is very similar to “Sanar”, another name for the Nadar community in Tamil Nadu. The Duravas take great pains to deny their connections with South India & with toddy tapping, which in their eyes is a demeaning profession.

According to the Durava revisionists, their ancestors took up toddy tapping only because they owned the land themselves. Or, they did it for their Durava brethren that owned large coconut groves. Toddy tappers, them – Oh, sacrilege! They also claim that they are a community devoted to martial arts, which was well connected with the aristocracy. Their role as soldiers for the Sinhala kings probably explains their contacts with the royals.

Karavas – The Negombo Story

Along the Eastern sea-board of India, predominantly in the states of Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh, a community of fisher-folks called “Karayar” live. A long time back, they moved to the South-Western coast of Srilanka.

In due course of time, their caste name morphed to “Karava”. Most of them are either Christians or Buddhists & consider themselves ethnic Sinhalas. Traditionally associated with fishing & boat-building, they also performed the roles of mercenaries to local kings.

Let’s focus on 2 districts in Srilanka: Gampaha & Puttalam, that abuts it. The Tamils – fishermen included – in Puttalam are known as Negombo Tamils. But the fishermen in Gampaha are Sinhala. Interestingly enough, the Karava in Gampaha are bilingual. While they speak Sinhala with the fluency of natives, they also speak an unusual dialect of Tamil – the “Negombo Fishermen’s Tamil”. This dialect is an admixture of Tamil & Colloquial Sinhala.

Elsewhere in Srilanka, the Karavas to the South of Colombo speak only Sinhala, though.

So, with the Karava caste, one can see Sinhalisation – akin to the coalescing of matter after the big bang – in progress, right before our eyes. In due course of time, one can expect the Negombo Tamil dialect to disappear, cutting the umbilical cord forever between the Karava & South India.

The Dance of Ingratiation

For their Sinhalisation to be complete, these 3 communities had to either forge an “Aryan” identity for their group, trace their ancestry to the pre-Indian aborigines of the island or claim royal or high-caste roots. They had to relinquish their “plain” South Indian roots, to ingratiate themselves to the Sinhala majority.

♣♣♣ The Salagamas are keen to establish their upper caste Aryan roots. To strengthen their claims, their surnames use the “Muni” suffix which – surprise, surprise – is the Sinhala word for Brahmins. Or, they go all out & use the family name “Nanedri”: a possible corruption of “Namboodiri”, the most common surname of Kerala Brahmins.

Here are a couple of legends, supposedly historical, to bolster the claims of the Salagamas.

King Bhuvaneka Bahu II ran into a small hitch while crowning his son, Prince Wathimi. The Prince’s mother was rumored to be a Muslim. This incensed the monks & they refused to perform the Coronation. The King flexed his royal muscles & imported Namboodiri Brahmins from Kerala to perform the ceremony. Their descendants mixed with weavers & soldiers from Kerala – and formed the “Salagama” caste.

Alternately, some claim that King Vijayabahu I implored the Saligrama Brahmins to manage his cinnamon plantations.

♣♣♣ Instead of claiming “Pure Aryan” ancestors, Duravas have declared they are the descendants of the elusive Nagas – who are mentioned in legends as one of the original inhabitants of Srilanka.

Some claim that since the word “Durava” has no meaning in Sinhala, it must have originated from “Durai” – which means “Headman” in Tamil. Some colonial records have noted that the Durava were “Palanquin Bearers” from Tamil Nadu & the Malabar coast. How & when Headmen started toting palanquins is left rather vague 🙂

♣♣♣ In an attempt to assimilate further with the majority Sinhalas, the Karava have Aryanized their caste name to “Kuru Kulam”. They even claim that the Coromandel Coast is the Anglicized version of Sanskrit “Kuru Mandalam” – Land of the Kurus. This helps them deny their South Indian origins & to claim North Indian Kshatriya roots.

Summing Up

The aim of this post is to question the wisdom of assuming that the Sinhalas are a product of inter-marriage between North Indians & the aborigines of Srilanka. It is ridiculous to assume that batches of people from Orissa, Bengal & Gujarat moved to Srilanka – while those from the much closer 4 Southern states did not. The migration history of Indians to Srilanka – and vice versa – is considerably more complex than that.

What then is the Sinhala identity? Is it correct to assume that they are a mono-ethnic community? If the present day Srilankans have measurable doses of Vedda, North Indian & South Indian blood – what about the ethnic mix of South Indians? Or for that matter, Srilankan Tamils?

It would be interesting to see what a scientific genetic study of these 3 groups would find. After 2500 years of shared history & intermingling, we will find that – there are too many genetic variations within each group. Would we also find that there are little or no appreciable differences between these groups?

That would make the Srilankan ethnic conflict the South Asian equivalent of the Hutu – Tutsi rebellion in Rwanda. What a terrible revelation that would be.

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Singapore Travelog #5

Continuing our travelog on Singapore – Here is Sukumar’s excellent post on the Peranakans, for those of you that haven’t read it so far.

We had some wonderful food in Singapore, but none of them in the hotel we stayed in. One day, we made the grievous error of ordering Fattouch, a Lebanese salad, in our hotel. As for the result – My friends, what can I say? The pita bread was neither crumbled nor fried. The chef, in his/her hurry, had sent mile-long lettuce leaves without bothering to chop them up. Perhaps lemons were out of season, so s/he had substituted them with sauteed bell peppers. The olive oil, sans its “Virgin”ity was bland.

Sad realization dawned on me. The Far East is the wrong place to look for the Middle East. I beckoned the waiter. “This is the worst Fattouch I’ve eaten in my life” I said, valiantly attempting to swallow an insipid tomato. The chef had forgotten an important step between assembling the ingredients & serving the food. Its called “Cooking”.

What’s a trip to Singapore without shopping sprees? Some of the most expensive shops are in Orchard Road, where you can shop till you drop or max out your credit cards, whichever happens first. The mother of all these stores is Takashimaya, one of the largest in Singapore. Inveterate bargain hunters will manage to find steals even in such stores. Others will go there just to stare agape at snooty shops like Max Mara or Emporio Armani & the glitterati that patronize such establishments.

Mustafa Center in Little India is a good place to buy reasonably priced everyday items, from Towels to Tiger Balm, Frito Lays to Foreign Exchange, Peanuts to Pajamas – in short, the works. Its quiet possible to lose your moorings in this shop – We must have walked 3 miles in the aisles. The shelves are crammed with stuff, some of which we had never encountered before & some I hope I never see again. Piles of tacky mementos are in every floor, so look no further if you are in the market for those 😀

The store is hounded by shopaholics, whining kids & their overflowing carts. I swerved to avoid some of them & stubbed my toe – very, very painfully – on what appeared to be a Pamir Mountain of suitcases. I thought the lights dimmed, but actually it was tears welling up in my eyes. Marvelous flowery language that streamed from me then, would have made sailors blush. I never knew I had such a fund of vocabulary at my disposal.

Naturally, we bought plenty of junk that we never knew we needed – Tote Bags, Herbal Medicines, Toe Nail Clippers, Hershey’s Chocolates, Plush Toys. When we came back to India, we gave it all away as gifts. So if you received any, you now know where it came from.

One of the pleasures of living in a 1st world country is access to clean walk-ways. Along both banks of the Singapore river is an excellent foot-path for jogging & walking & we made good use of it. Thanks to well-planned under-passages, people don’t have to stop for on-coming traffic ever.

Either banks of the narrow river are well connected by an array of bridges. At the farthest end of the walkway, at One Fullerton, stands the majestic Merlion – the symbol of Singapore. This sculpture of a lion’s head on a fish’s body was designed by Fraser Brunner of the Van Kleef Aquarium. It supposedly commemorates the discovery of Temasek – which later became Singapura – by the Indonesian Prince Sang Nila Uttama.

Along the way is Clark Quay, a vibrant, pulsating area of Singapore, which finds its rhythm late in the evenings. It is dotted with many interesting micro-breweries, malls, restaurants & bars. It is chock-full of people dressed to the nines. If you plan to visit, check out Shiraz, a Persian restaurant & Marrakesh, a Moroccan eatery.

For people that don’t feel like a 4 Km walk one way, Water Taxis are good options. For SGD $18 per adult, you can make a round trip of about 45 minutes along the river.

On the banks of the Singapore River is an old building called Empress Place. It has been converted to the 2nd wing of the Asian Civilizations Museum. Near the entrance stands the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, a black edifice that overlooks another monument, the Dalhousie Obelisk. The latter was erected to commemorate the visit of the Marquis of Dalhousie, the Governor General of India, to Singapore.

I didn’t intend the above para to be a history lesson. They are major landmarks near the Raffles Landing site, plus they are near the photogenic Cavenagh Bridge, so they are worth checking out.

Anyone who knows me will tell you what a lily liver I am, when it comes to heights. I have vertigo of the worst kind. But, in Singapore, we met a guy who made me feel like a brave lioness. The most scenic way to go to Sentosa, the site of the most popular attractions in Singapore, is to take a Cable Car from Mount Faber. Poor guy, he had marshmallows in his stomach. Every time his wife moved a muscle, he screamed “OW! OW! Don’t Move!”. We had to pat his hands to comfort him. Compared to him, I’m Sir Edmund Hillary.

As night falls, the last show in Sentosa starts – a Sound & Light show by the beach. Even Priya Raju the lion-heart turned deadly pale when confronted with the mode of transport: A Chair Lift. Imagine a park bench without a foot-rest or arm-rests. Now imagine suspending this cable-car style, 50 storeys high. We had to travel in this fashion from 1 end of the island to another. I clutched the backrest of the bench, curled my toes, closed my eyes shut & clung to dear life.

Really, there must be a better way for the yellow-bellied to travel across Sentosa at night. I chattered non-stop along the way, to preserve my nerves. I know I held a discourse on Chechnya & Ingushetia, but I’m not sure if I arrived at a properly packaged plan to solve the unrest.

On the last day of our trip, we visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens. An MRT station near the gardens is under construction, so the best way to reach there is by cab. The garden was the brain-child of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore. I wish we had seen the website of the gardens before leaving for Singapore: for it has a Mission & Vision statement 🙄 How banal.

The gardens were a huge disappointment. It looked beautiful, it had a sprawling acreage – and I’m sure their botanists do yeoman work to make their city-state a greener place. But for a tourist, the user experience left a lot to be desired. The plants & trees were poorly documented, the guided tours were conducted by volunteers – once a week, there were no audio guides & there were no pamphlets to help the visitors glean more information about the planted species.

The “Palm Valley” section – the very section that me & Sukumar had hoped would shed some light on native plants in our Indology work – played host to families on picnic, dogs gamboling without leashes & kids playing throw-ball. I think its fair to say that the Gardens function as the city’s green lung, provide a much-needed backdrop for families to have a pot-luck & aid academics in their research. But, it had precious little for the geekier visitors that want to learn something from their brief sojourn in the gardens.

That’s All Folks! That concludes our travelogs on Singapore. Toodles. See you all again in my next post on Srilanka.

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Singapore Travelog #4 – The Peranakans

Prolog

Hope all of you are enjoying the series on Singapore. Priya Raju’s entertaining posts have definitely enlivened the proceedings – Here is her previous post. Thanks Priya.

All along the trip, we kept hearing the term “Peranakans” and it piqued our curiosity. Therefore, we decided to explore the Peranakan Museum, which is a wing of the Asian Civilizations Museum. We signed up for the tour of the museum and were fortunate to have a guide who was passionate about Peranakan Culture. Throughout the tour,  she would ask us to guess why Peranakans did something a certain way.  Given my current preoccupation with Symbology, I was able to crack many of them. The guide quipped that I must have been a Peranakan in my prior birth!

Who are the Peranakans?

Peranakan means “Local Born” – the people that were born in Singapore. Though the term usually means Peranakan Chinese, it also includes Chitty Melaka Peranakan – Indian Hindu + Local Malay mixture and the Jawi Peranakan. – Indian muslim + Local Malay. Chitty Melaka speak Malay with quite a few Tamil words.

Peranakan Religion

They follow a syncretic religion that has a mix of beliefs from Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which they brought from Southern China. Over time they developed their own customs.

Previously in the tour, we had seen the temple of the Goddess of the Sea – Ma Cho Po. It was built by Tan Tock Seng, an  early Peranakan Chinese leader. We could see gods from all the constituent parts of the religion. The temple in Kusu Island that Priya Raju mentioned is also from the same syncretic religion.

The Peranakan fathers were Chinese Traders and hence they didn’t have scholars amongst them. Interestingly, that meant that, they didn’t have all the details of their religion accurately. For instance, the 8 immortals were key gods of the religion but are represented incorrectly as 6 or 7  in the Peranakan art, cutlery, furniture and other symbols.  One could say this is how ideas get distorted when they travel long distances.

Peranakan Customs

It is this part that is the most fascinating for an Indian Tourist. Being a male dominated culture there were so many customs that sounded eerily familiar to our own.

The daughters were trained to cook, clean, sew etc, so that they can be excellent housewives.  They were called Nonyas. Arranged marriage to well-employed men, called Babas, with an elaborate 12-day wedding (yes, 12 days) was the norm.

The elderly women went scouting for daughters-in-law. The bride to be had to prepare and serve  Sireh. Sireh had Betel leaf lightly smeared with lime paste as well as betel nut slivers (Seeval) like Tamil Vethala Pakku. The Nonyas had to know how to make the Sireh well. If she folds the Sireh in the correct way then she is  thought to be well-trained. If the bride to be was not acceptable for any reason, the elder will simply not accept the Sireh indirectly saying “No” to the Nonya.

The 12 day wedding was very interesting. On the wee hours of Day 1 the bride and groom have to go through what they call as the “Hair Combing” ceremony in their own homes. It is supposed to be symbolic of the coming of age.

Later on day 1, the First Meal Ceremony happens when the bride and groom share a meal for the first time. They also feed one another some portions.  Most likely this the first time they meet each other. Sounds familiar, eh!

Then a procession of the bride and groom happens. Both of them have an attendant holding a  large umbrella to give them shade (the umbrellas looked somewhat like the ones we carry during processions of Hindu Gods in Southern India).

Aunts of the bride & groom follow them behind like in our Hindu Brahmin weddings.  But the Peranakan twist is that these guests will have to be specifically invited based on whether their horoscopes were matching with the bride and groom. Widows were never invited. If the lady had many sons, she was much preferred!

On Day 3, the Tea Ceremony with in-laws happens. Traditionally, this is when the in-laws give their wedding gifts to the bride and groom.

Like in our arranged marriages, a lot of gifts – furniture, vessels etc are given by the bride’s family to the newly weds. Interestingly, the Peranakans never use any nails in the furniture because of its association with coffins.

On the 12th day, the white kerchief placed on the bed for the first night is checked for virginity and if not the marriage could be canceled!

Peranakan Mourning

They also had elaborate rituals for their ancestors. Every home had an altar that has a cupboard which contains the ancestral tablets – one for each ancestor.

When the man of the house dies, the women go into mourning for 3 years. She has to wear a dress made of sackcloth for a period of time after which it is burnt. As time passes, the color of the dress changes to specific colors that indicate the elapsed time of mourning. It is only after 3 years that she can wear normal clothes. Of course, there are no such rules for men!

Overall, the brief tour of the Peranakan culture indicated how conservative cultures think alike across the world.

Epilog

Questions for the readers. When did Hinduism go to South East Asia? Was it with the Chola conquests in South East Asia?

Click here for the next post on Singapore.

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Singapore Travelog #3

As I write these travelogs with Sukumar Rajagopal, I can’t help sinking into a Pausanius complex. He was a  traveler in ancient Greece, that painstakingly recorded his first-hand observations. A lot of what we know about Olympia, for example, is because of him. Since I don’t want to don the mantle of a documentarian, I should remind myself not to pen wearisome articles of great detail.

Ok, back to where I unceremoniously dumped you in my previous post.

One of the things people do in Singapore is, go on a High Tea Cruise. Most ferries start from the Marina South Pier & go on a 2.5 hour ride, past the Offshore Oil Drills. If weather permits, there is a stop-over at Kusu Island. Do this if you love being bored out of your skull. This was the lamest part of our trip.

After spending a mind-numbing hour on the ferry, drinking weak tea & nibbling on cloyingly sweet cakes – we couldn’t eat the savory puffs, since they only came in 2 kinds: Chicken & Beef – we got out on the island & stretched our legs. We were eager to see the Chinese Buddhist temple & the Malay Muslim Dargah in the island.  We were curious to learn the history of the temples & the significance of the Gods enshrined there.

But, there were no inscriptions in English. Nor could we find anyone to explain a damn thing to us. There were more mosquitoes on the island than there were tourists in the ferry. And the hungry buggers did a tattoo on my arm. Perhaps its not a coincidence that the island is named “Kusu”. Ask the nearest Tamil speaker to translate the word for you. This blog is all about decorum, propriety & prudery. So, I can’t tell you that “Kusu” means “Fart” in Tamil. You have to figure it out yourselves.

Our wish to see a beautiful, functioning Buddhist temple was granted soon enough. In fact, it was the most memorable part of our trip: Visiting the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in China Town. When we visited the temple at 10 AM, a group of monks were chanting the scriptures in unison. I don’t know if its the acoustics of temples, maybe the resonating frequency – but it gave us goose-bumps. The monks were dressed in yellow robes & the other practitioners of the faith had black cloaks on. The images of a 100 Buddhas serenely eyed the proceedings from the chamber walls, smiling beatifically.

The 4th floor of this temple houses the tooth relic of the Buddha. It is kept under a Stupa made of beaten gold & it is taken out only twice a year: Chinese New Year & Vesak day. The public can see a video of the consecration of the tooth. Many people question the authenticity of the relic, though. As far as the wider Buddhist world holds, only Srilanka & China have original tooth relics of the Buddha. The one in Singapore was a gift from a monk in Myanmar & it could very well be a fake. For that matter, how do we ever ascertain the veracity of the relics in Srilanka & China? Matters of faith are best left unquestioned.

Back to the Singapore Zoo’s “Fragile Forest”. This section is at the very end of the zoo. As we entered the enclosure, we found a bunch of mesmerized people on the viewing platform. 2 ring-tailed lemurs were spiritedly playing, while a 3rd one languorously watched from its perch. Remember, this is an open zoo, with freely roaming animals. The lemurs were prancing about, brushing against people, their patterned tails flicking incessantly. They didn’t seem to mind the oglers. Nor were they even a teeny bit afraid of us.

I had a map of Singapore in my hands. One of the lemurs came near me, its amber eyes glistening impishly. It took – not snatched, took – the map from me, with its curious hand-like front paws. Upon inspection, which involved chewing, the lemur must have decided that the map wasn’t a toy. I sat down beside it & asked politely, “May I have my map back?”. The lemur raised it head & looked at me, face tilted to one side. Then, it gave me back the tattered map – which of course, was in a sad state of disrepair & rendered useless.

It then stood on me – my legs, actually – to get a better look at me, debating whether it should rag me further, thought otherwise, then pounced at another lady’s handbag.

BTW, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system in Singapore is a thing of beauty. There are 3 lines that criss-cross the island – East-West, North-South & North-East. The fares range from SGD $2 to SGD $2.80 per trip – SGD $1 of which is refundable. Passengers can recycle the tickets by feeding them into the automated vending machines to get their refund back.

If you ever plan to be in Singapore & have kids  or you are a kid at heart like us – do not miss the awesome Night Safari. We loved the “Creatures of the Night” show, an interactive performance in an amphitheater. Easy, cupcake. This amphitheater has no gladiators or hungry carnivores mauling each other. This is a show where cute animals perform their bag of tricks. But, the animal that stole our hearts completely did not do anything. It merely showed up in style.

There was a vine tied high up above the amphitheater. A pair of Binturongs clung to the vine & looked down at us, their whiskers quivering. These civet-like critters looked adorable, like teddy bears made of dark chocolate. Their size was comparable to a smallish dog. Once they were above the audience, they clung to the vine with their hind-legs & hung face down-wards, like bats, drooling copiously on a hapless man seated right beneath them.

They then gently alighted on their trainer’s shoulders & coiled themselves around his neck like a furry scarf. I very badly wanted to stroke & scrunch up their sweet, pointy little faces. But that’s against the zoo’s policy. That, plus the Binturongs seemed to sport syringe-like dental equipment. And I like having all my fingers intact, I’m rather attached to them.

If you press me to say out loud the 1 thing that irritated me the most in the trip – It has to be Flash Photography. In the Night Safari, the guide requested us – in 6 languages, to boot – not to use our flashes. Most of the animals were nocturnal creatures unused to bright lights & the flash might blind them. Or, scare them enough to make them lose control & run into the tram in panic, hurting themselves & the visitors. And you know what the morons did? Repeatedly? Used Flash!

I was so furious. The guides begged the visitors again & again, to refrain from using flash. I cowed down some of those unthinking cads in my stentorian voice, but there were just too many of them. We even saw a fool give his camera to his child. And the kid promptly used flash to take a picture of a Barn Owl. Which was so shocked, that it flew to the highest branches of a tree & had to be coaxed down by a park ranger. Really, if people don’t have even an iota of consideration for their fellow beings, why travel? I beseech them to stay in their caves like all other Neanderthals before them!

I’ll pen a subsequent post on Singapore, its numerous walk-ways & other attractions. But before that, I hand the baton over to Sukumar, to write his much awaited post on the Peranakans.