(Editorial note: I’m not well versed in either Hinduism or Singapore history, so please accept my apologies for any inaccuracies or offenses below – they are completely unintentional. I encourage you to follow some of the links below to learn more about these topics.)
The weekend of August 28th through the 30th was a packed weekend for us. We started with our “21 Day Party” on Friday evening, which we’ll explain in another blog post. The following picture represents some of the highlights of the rest of the weekend. The figure on the left is a Hindu god named Ganesha, and the one on the right is the Merlion.
On Saturday, we had an invite from Deepak Setty and his family for a traditional Indian vegetarian dinner. Deepak is a colleague of mine at Microsoft. He’s been in Singapore for the last several years with his family – Lalitha his wife, and their two boys Aditya and Drew (my apologies to the Setty family for what I would guess to be some misspellings). Michel Gambier, my manager, and his wife Sylvie were also there. It was cool to have my family meet the families of those close to me at work. And the food, cooked by Lalitha and Deepak’s mother, was unbelievably good (and the food kept coming and coming – we we’re pretty full after that night).
But one of the real delights of the visit, was that they took us to an Indian temple. The Setty’s are Hindu, and remarkably knowledgeable and open about their religion. They took us to the local temple, called the Sri Siva Durga Temple. Here’s a picture of the outside of the temple (we went Merlion it was dark, and the temple was even more dramatic and beautiful lit up in the nighttime).
So back to Ganesha, he is easily distinguished by his elephant head. You pray to him to remove obstacles, in fact he is the first god you pray to when you enter the temple. We actually got to tour the whole temple, and participate in several of the rituals. We got the red dots placed on our foreheads by the priests, we drank holy water, we received flower petals, and learned an immense amount. Hinduism has many gods, like Ganesha, each with a detailed history and sometimes many many names (it can even be hundreds). The richness of the religion is really staggering.
The Setty’s were amazing hosts, and they finished by placing a jewel in the middle of Kirsten’s forehead, and giving the rosewood-carved Ganesha figure above – as you can see a beautiful piece proudly displayed in our apartment.
That was Saturday. On Sunday it rained, but we had some good indoor fun at Lilliputt (which Jackson told your about here), and afterwards went to Mustafa Center in Little India. Mustafa’s is a department store, but likely one unlike you’ve ever seen. The place is truly amazing, even overwhelming. It’s not just the amount of stuff they cover (televisions, watches, clothing, food, office supplies, books, furniture, household items, etc. etc. etc.), it’s the amount. For example, Jackson counted 29 aisles of candy alone. This place puts Target to shame.
Back to the Merlion – Jackson found this statue at Mustafa’s and really wanted to buy it. The Merlion is one of Singapore’s national symbols, and the most famous one is at the head of the Singapore river, right down by my office. In fact, the picture at the header of our blog is a picture of that Merlion.
Great weekend. That’s all for now.
-Mark and Jackson
