6 April 2011
Little India
This evening I decided to head out to the Indian part of Singapore, called as you have probably guessed by now, Little India.
As far as India outside of India goes, I believe this is as Indian as you can get. Lots of the Indian people here are in traditional dress, with huge moustaches, lined up at the remittance banks, and having heated arguments about calling cards.
I saw a few situations I thought would turn into fights, one guy was trying to return some jewellery because I think the gold paint had come off revealing the lead.
Someone else was arguing about a cell phone, it was fantastic, everyone seemed angry about something.
You know once you are in little india, the footpaths dissapear completely, crap is piled up out the front of all the shops, restaurants have huge smelly rubbish bins in the eating area, cars are parked any which way, delivery trucks come around the corner at full speed up the wrong side of the road with the horn going.
All stores have reclaimed the footpath as their own, and then theres whats normally a drain, but stores in Little India have placed some wooden boards over the drain to extend their shops a bit further, only every now and then the wooden board is broken, which is quite treachorous.
I had a number of people chase me wanting to sell me things, including a watch, solid gold best pure quality, tailored suits, and my favourite was 'hi sir, welcome sir, dinner sir, tandoori chicken sir, just like Sydney, New York, London sir'. I admired this guys attempt at guessing my city or at least my continent.
Nearby is the enormous Mustafa centre, its quite amazing. Its a department store like no other. Its enormous and follows no logical plan, extra bits are added on, some floors come to a dead end for no reason, theres often only a way up not down, or down not up. Stuff is piled to the roof, but not just any old stuff, if you ever wondered what happened to fashions from about 15 years ago, they are here in bulk.
On basement level 2, down the back, is the I.T. section. Sure they have ipads, and a million ipad cases, but they also have minidisc recorders, dcc tape recorders, super audio cd players, laserdisc players, cassette answering machines etc.
My dinner experience was great, but I will tell that with the pictures below.
A typical street in little india, lots of shops selling strings of flowers and packs of 100 multicolored plastic bangles.
The temple is fairly impressive, very colorful.
I didnt go inside as you have to remove your shoes, but it was just as colorful inside. I am never sure if you are allowed to take photos or not, so I just do.
Nearby and a guru/yoga master was going to give a speech, the guys in here seemed fairly annoyed at my photography.
This was great, if you look closely you can see a small tv. My photo doesnt depict it but theres at least 100 guys standing around watching this tv, which is showing an Indian soap opera. They were all laughing a lot.
The store has set up a badly distorted loudspeaker system to accommodate the viewers.
The shopfronts along here look a lot like a London street.
Heres where I had my dinner. It was a 'pure vegetarian' restaurant.
Not only did I get food, but I got a show as well!
I arrive and say 'table for 1 please?' and get blank stares from all and sundry.
So I ask, can I eat here?Eventually a guy comes out of the kitchen and exclaims 'WELCOME SIR! WE ARE PLEASED TO BE SERVING YOU, YES! YESSSS!' and showed me a seat and gave me a menu.
So I tried to order, and the guy with the notepad answers yes sir to everything, and writes it down.
Next thing a waitress comes over to take my order, I told her I have already ordered, she says the other guy couldnt understand me, so I order again, she writes it down.
Then someone not even from the store comes over, I have been pointing at items on the English only menu whilst saying the names through all of this, and its common indian dishes too, like Palak Paneer.
This guy speaks good English and tells me theres some confusion with my order, so I tell him again.
To be continued with the next photo......
......So in the meantime, a guy comes into the store area (its actually an outdoor area) and starts giving a presentation about calling cards hes trying to sell.
This goes on for some time, but no ones buying.
Next thing another guy comes out from the kitchen with a cup of tea and puts it in front of me, I said I didnt order tea, he walked off, I assume its free and take a sip, plain tea. Next thing he comes back again and takes it away!
Food comes out to my table, its not mine, its left for a while, another table points and tells the waiter something in Hindi, he retrieves the food and gives it to them.
This happened twice more! On the third time I cracked up laughing.
Next someone tried to order sweets, and they tried to box them in some fancy box, and they were all stuck together, like they hadnt moved for days, the potential customer was put off by this and an argument ensued, he left.
Then a waiter spilled a glass of water over another customer.
Eventually my food came out, to the wrong table, they looked confused and argued, but it was left on their table, so I got up and got it, they thanked me in English!
So it was a fantastic adventure, and the food was actually very nice!
No durian on the train.
Hooray for pollution free skies!