My dear friend Kannan ends his bachelorhood

My Chinese-educated friend T. Kannan had ended his bachelorhood just now at about 9.00 pm with Ms. Maragatam Viji. The raja-sehari ceremony-cum-dinner party was very colourful and musical.

Indian culture is nothing new to me because it has always been part of Ipoh's socio-cultural landscape for a long, long time. It has even been an element in my own family since a sister of mine Pooi Mun married Rajah in the mid-1980s.

So, by the time I first visited Nepal in 1993, everything was so normal and familiar to me. This young and sweet lady was pleasantly surprised that I could eat really hot curry mutton on banana leaves and know how to order cold moru to neutralise the effects.

It was in Bali in July 2001 that I first saw a stage performance of Ramayana, parts of the story I had already known when I was 12. The hero Hanuman is actually the respected Monkey King in Chinese folklore.