Yesterday was Diwali (or Deepavali as it’s known in Malaysia). Although there is a huge Indian expatriate community in UAE, it is quite a quiet affair. Especially so here in Shuweihat where everyone is immersed with the ongoing outage works. The joy of Diwali seems to be drowned by the chaos of opening the turbine. Wished some of my Indian friends ‘Happy Diwali’ much to their surprise. They were surprised I even know that it is Diwali. Many of them had no idea that Diwali is a public holiday in Malaysia. Some are even surprised that we have a thriving Indian community back home (who are citizens of Malaysia!) But it was nice to see the sparkle in their eyes when I wished them, as if to tell that they are happy that someone remembers it’s Diwali!
Talking about the Indian community in Malaysia, I watched a documentary on Al Jazeera channel couple of days ago. It’s called People Power. There was a segment in the show which talks about racial polarization in Malaysia. Apparently there was a huge demonstration by the Indian community some weeks ago at the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya. The show went on to depict how many Indians feel displaced in Malaysia in matters like education, religion conversion, economy etc. There was also a few minutes dedicated to discuss the May 13th incident and how despite the fact that 38 years have lapsed since then not much improvement can be seen in racial relations in Malaysia. In fact, people seem to have become more polarized. Well… it would be nice if you could catch a re-run of that on Al Jazeera channel. I will not discuss any further on such sensitive issue.
Oh… by the way…. HAPPY DIWALI or HAPPY DEEPAVALI to all my Indian friends! Wish you and your family a happy, joyous and dazzling festival of lights!
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