Days 877 - 878: Celebrating New Years!

I had a really good weekend, one of the best in a while, I must say!

This weekend was the time when most parts of India celebrated their new year, including my state Kerala whose New Year was on Saturday. The Malayalis, the Bengalis, the Tamils, the Punjabis, etc. etc. had their New Years over 13 - 15 April and I got to celebrate quite a bit of it myself.

I woke up early in the morning of 14th April, the day of Vishu or the Kerala New Year and made my way to the prayer room with my eyes closed and opened them just as I got in front of the deities. This is a custom called Vishukani followed by everyone in our state on Vishu day and the idea is to start the new year with a good sight. Then I got to the hubby to do the same which was fun. Then both of us received our Vishukaineettams from my mom who is in town. Vishukaineetam is another custom where the elders in the family give a token amount in cash to the younger folks, pretty similar to the Chinese custom of the hungbao. It was the first time I was getting Vishukaineettam in a very long time because usually there are no elders around in Singapore during this time to give away money! So this was pretty cool!

14 April - 15 April, 2012

Then I spent a considerable amount of time listening to Vishu songs and devotional songs that go all the way back to my childhood, which was super nostalgic and super feel good! Then I made all the "Happy Vishu" calls to all my relatives back in Kerala and it was nice catching up with all of them!

Then it was time for a temple visit. The hubby, mom and I made our way to Little India to go the temple, post which we had the delicious customary feast at Swaadhisht. Consisting of about 25 different dishes, it was a grand highlight of our simple, minimal Vishu celebrations!

Then I spent the rest of the day watching movies, movies and more movies. Given that it was Tamil and Malayalam New Year there were plenty of films in Tamil and Malayalam running on TV and I caught quite a few them, which was a good culmination of the Vishu celebrations!

On Sunday too, there were some celebrations, this time because of the Bengali new year. A Bengali friend suggested that we go for a Bengali lunch to celebrate and so, together with the hubby, mom and our usual gang of friends, we made our way to Mustard, which I believe is the only Bengali restaurant in Singapore, and had a sumptuous meal! Consisting of chops, chicken khaatti roll, paneer khaati roll, coriander chicken curry, mutton curry, breaded fish, Bengali version of the pooris called Luchi, tandoori chicken, rosagulla, kulfi, and another milk based dessert (the name of which I can't recollect anymore), it was more than filling and very satisfying! That together with the random chatting and fun with the friends made it the perfect New Year celebrations!

So yes, I had two good days. I ventured out two days in a row which is a first after a long time, and had food outside two days in a row, which makes it an even bigger deal! Both events marking some excellent progress!

Am happy!

122 more to go.