cny celebrations with indian friends



for the past 8 or 9 years, i have, without fail, celebrated cny by inviting my indian friends - former colleagues from monk's hill secondary school - over for chinese dinner. we started having this gathering when i was living at towner road. of course, these invitations have been reciprocated. i have been to nara and balendra's places for deepavali dinners.

the regulars are mr & mrs victor samuel, mr & mrs nara, mr & mrs balendra, mr rama and mr sethi. when victor's children were younger, they used to join us. i consider victor indian because he speaks tamil. his wife, helen, is chinese.

this year 2006, mr & mrs nara did not join us because they had gone over to melbourne to help out as anu was renovating her new home. could not contact them at all because i had stored anu's mobile number in my pda which had 'died'.

they relished the mushrooms, sea cucumber, cold dish, roast duck, sweet and sour meat and vegetables. but, these days, they seem to have a preference of healthier dishes ...more vegetables and less meat.

initially, i had also invited some muslim colleagues. but, on the day of the dinner, none turned up. that was a learning point for me. these days, when i have my muslim colleagues from admiralty over for a makan, i make sure i have new plastic ware to serve the food (in).