In Malaysia, its on the 27 of November 2008, and its the Hindu Festival of lights. To all my Hindu mates out there, have a good one!

I have been to allot of wedding before, but none quite like this one for sure. Its probably cos most of my friends who get married are Christian, and so its the usual exchanging of vows and rings, walking down the aisle and all that. Well, I can say Umar and Mahlini’s wedding was different from any I have ever attended, especially cos the bride was in Red and there were so many coconuts cracked! Seriously! They were coconuts, bananas, rice, jasmine flowers, incenses, leaves of all sorts, so much equipment. I wish I had somebody top explain what was going on, as I was really clueless. I did assume that they were offically married once Umar tied the “Tali” around Mahlini’s neck, cos thats when everybody threw rice and jasmine flowers on her! I was caught in the line of fire and came back with tons of rice on my hair.

 One thing to be said for sure, it was the most colorful wedding I ever attended! Ladies turned up in sarri’s of many colours and styles, they had all sorts of bangles and henna art on their hands, the stage area had tons of flowers and all that. It was a long ceramony and I was supper hungry, but it was a beautiful one. Congrats to Umar and Mahlini.

All photo’s I took last night :- http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicktay/sets/72157604259780174/ 

I read the blog posts this morning which horror and dismay. What is happening back home? With Deepavali a meer 7 days away, there seems to be a crackdown on the Hindu’s of Malaysia. Temples are being destroyed by the police. Hindu’s were attacked by the police, having stones hurled at them, and even stabbed. It was reported that the police had orders to shoot unarmed Hindu devotees.

Don’t know what I am talking about? Read this, this, this and this. Sigh? Where is our peace loving leaders? Don’t they know its Visit Malaysia Year 2007? Or does that even matter? The Indians are the poorest people group in Malaysia, always marginalized and now you attack the one thing they hold on to? Their faith? We are becoming a Taliban Nation man!