After a dinner of frog leg porridge in Chinatown with my sis and her Penang friends (there’s a whole bunch of Penang people in Singapore – I told my sis to set up her own Penang Club even), Nic and I decided to drop by Singapore’s Little India for a quick look-see.
After all, visiting Little India in Penang is my favourite pastime, besides eating banana leaf rice at Sri Ananda Bhawan’s. I wanted to see how similar things are down south, particularly as it was nearing Deepavali then. Singapore’s Little India would be bustling!
Was I right! The streets were decked out with gorgeous lights and a sense of gaiety punctuated the air. Although it was almost 10, the streets were still crowded.
Some Indian vendors were just in the midst of arranging their vegetables – oddly people were buying carrots and tomatoes at night. I guessed these people were very busy indeed and could only come out at night to shop for their food.
Within a specific bazaar place set up for this Indian community, we gawked at the trinkets and decorations, the bells and the incense, the biscuits and the prayer items.
Finally after walking about, I felt a little smug. This Little India, while clean and not very noisy, couldn’t really compare to our Penang version.
Ours is noisier, busier and an assault to all your senses. Loud music, smell of burning incense, people talking loudly – all these make our Penang an undisputed winner in the cacophony department.
With that, we were ready to stop for a cup of masala chai at one of the Indian shops.
One clear similarity was that the sweetmeats were still the same garishly pink and green!
