I was shopping at an antique store which was selling statues of Buddha, and I suddenly happen to hear a voice from behind which said “Vanakkam”. To my dismay, when I turned back it was a Chinese guy. I wanted to show that I also knew some kind of Chinese and told him “Nee how ma” (How are you). After initial exchange of pleasantries, he was describing about the Statue that I was holding in my hand. I wanted to buy a statue of Avaloketeshwara and he started relating the similarities between the Indian goddess Durga and Avaloketeshwara. I was completely taken aback. He did not stop there, he said he is planning to visit the Madurai Meenakshi amman temple and started quoting from “Thirukural”. I was amazed and more than amazed, ashamed because, I knew very little about their culture.

The other day, I visited a Chinese temple and came to know that there isn’t much difference between the cultures. An incident that touched me the most is.. There was a Krishna temple nearby and I found a lot of Chinese standing their and praying in their traditional way. Having an Agarbatti in hand and offering prayers. I just realized that they give a lot of emphasis to the departed souls and they believe a lot in praying to their ancestors would give them wealth and prosperity.

Talking about the departed soul, I saw a Chinese funeral and it wasn’t any different from ours. The only difference I found was that, even when there was a body, I found the family members playing cards the whole night. The dead body is cremated only after 7-10 days depending upon the status of the family. The funniest part is that the Govt of Singapore for want of burial space, excavates the burial ground once in 20 years and stores the remains in a small box, attaches an RFID kind of a tag and then stores the box in a building. The relatives are given a key (like the one that we get in our bank lockers) and would have to fix an appointment and offer their prayers…. The Singapore government has brought in technology even for the dead.. I am sure they are capable of doing more…

Now talking about their marriages. The Chinese spend a lot of money on their weddings and they expect their guest to return the favor by gifting them with a proportion equivalent to the money spent. To put in Ramakrishnamoorthy Sir Language. The Driver behind this is the food that is served. If a ten course meal is served, the standard is that you pay 100$ and it goes on changing. I also came to know of some interesting stats. People belonging to the Malaysian fraternity marry early and also get divorced early. One in every ten marriages ends up in a divorce. It looks like there is very little stability in their marriage and however the support from family members is enormous. Even if a girl or boy is divorced, not only their parents their entire family supports them and arranges for a second/ third marriage. On the contrary the Chinese are more Money minded and would like to go behind any opportunity which would fetch them some money.