It was just yesterday that I've walked the path of multitude culture in Little India.
The earliest Indian settlers came from the Straits Settlement ( Penang & Malacca) and then from India. Due to situation back in homeland; shortage of jobs and food - they came to Singapore. Soon followed by Indians from Ceylon or now known as Sri Lanka.
In good prospect and faith, they left their homeland and settled in Singapore.
The hot sunny weather did not stop me from going deeper into the neighbourhood.
The Indian ladies don their colourful sarees with their hair are tied up in a chignon bun or a pony tails with jasmine flowers ribboning their crown. As they walk along the street, you see glimmering bangles of many colours. I only knew through an Indian friend that should a lady wore red coloured bangles, it meant she just recently tied the knot. And on her forehead, you will see a red dot pottu(or also known as bindi among the North Indians). While, the black ones denotes their celibate status. Whether married of not, I see many of ladies were adorned gold jewelleries.
Here are what've I've taken on my sturdy and reliable Iphone camera; my show and tell of Little India:
The Pottu / Bindi - Wearing the red ones mean this lady's taken!
The Bangles - I personally find wearer are both alluring&feminine. The selections are endless...!
The Sarees - You're looking stylish & feminine with no zips nor buttons
The Flower Offerings - To the gods in temples (or to a highly repected person ) The String that binds? It's from the dried banana leaves' trunk.AMAZING!
The Last Chinese House of Tan Teng Niah - Standing still in the midst of Little India; its alluring combination of east and west architecture with variety of colours. Now, in this house is an Indian pharmacy and they sell varieties of Indian herbal medicines, famously known as HIMALAYA. I heard one of their best product is the neem leaves in capsules. Especially for those suffering acne & pimples, sufferers can benefit from it as neem deemed to be a blood purifier/detoxifies. AMAZING!
Soon reached a North Indian temple. No, it's not a commercial bank that starts with the alphabet "H" and ends with a "C"!
The Temple is known as The Shree Lakshmi Narayan Temple.
This temple is dedicated to both Lord Vishnu (the preserver) and his consort, Goddess of Wealth & Beauty - Lakshmi. Here's what's inside of the temple...
The interior ceiling of the temple
The WORD GOD - OHM
The Preserver & Goddness of Wealth and Beauty : Vishnu & Lakshmi
As we walked out of the inner vicinity and onto the main street, here's another temple with South Indian devotees. We went into The Sri Veeramakaliamman ( Pronounced as VEE-RA-MA-KA-LIAM-MAN )Temple. There is a vast difference in its architecture as it is more elaborate and even names of the gods and goddnesses are in different calling - there are 108 aliases! Even so, they are one as they are however, in many different forms. AMAZING!
The Side of the Temple - Statues sculpted in the eyes of the artists.The Gopuram or tower(a common feature of South Indian temple architecture)
The Ceiling at the entrance - The angels're just above you
There are more snapshots in this temple which is dedicated to Goddess Kali (or one of her many aliases - DURGHA, PERIYACHI) whom the spouse of Lord Shiva (the destroyer. Heard from the locals that he destroy in order to create) In some pictures, you see some gruesome depicts however it is believed that she is the goddness of true justice. She uphold justice for the weak.Just check out of the pictures below and tell me, what you can decipher from it.
The priests (brahmins and not to be mistaken as BRAHMAN - GOD OF CREATOR)performing some prayers; you will see the fire ; the milk, the coconut - some of the offerings brought by the devotees.
The DEEPAM - The oil lamp container filled with GHEE
Notice the word OHM = GOD on top of the tower?
The main door - cling! cling!
desvfashion's piece of advice:
Don't forget your take off your shoes and to be properly attire prior entering places of worship. Please place your shoes not facing the main entrance but into shoe racks that are provided.
Now, talking about food - Indians are mostly vegetarians hence along the corners branching out to your left and right, you will see vegetable stall owners displaying their finest and freshest vegetables. Can you name me some of the vegetables here?
And more veggies!!
And this vegetable looks like a long gourd but the locals called it - DRUM STICK - mainly because of its slim body which resembles a pair of drum stick? AMAZING!
The limes - said to ward of evil. You'll see some of it being hang at the main entrance.
The row of shophouses of 2 storeys and 3 storeys high.
The SPICE MILL - walked pass this shophouse, nothing fancy within but the aroma of the spices, oh my..it's overwhelmingly smell GOOD! Make it a swift move as the aroma gets empowerring somehow...
The mango leaves - notice that leaves on the main entrance? It is said to purify the air and welcome the gods as shared by the locals.
The finale of the walk ends with a delectable vegetarian lunch at GOKUL - a highly recommended Indian vegetarian restaurant which serves both North and South Indian cuisines. My Iphone battery went flat just as my stomach! I ordered a NAAN SET (wheat based bread cooked in a clay oven called TANDOR) with BOMBAY ICE TEA (actually, it's a ice lemon tea). I paid SGD 7 for the NAAN SET & SGD 3.50 for BOMBAY ICE TEA.
I am sorry, I don't have any pictures to show you, sigh!
Luckily enough, this was taken right before my phone gone dead.
All in all, I hope you've enjoyed my walk to Little India in Singapore.
I feel that this write up shares with you just a little bit of the Indian culture ; there's more to meet the eyes; it's fascinating.
Well, have you manage to name all the veggies listed here?
Do drop me your answers and a comment or two!
Naandri - Thank You (it means thank you in Tamil)
