Diwali In Dubai

Diwali or rather, Deepavali to most Singaporeans is not a PH in this muslim state. But nevertheless, it is widely celebrated as the Indians make up 30 % of Dubai's resident population.

On Tuesday, it was Diwali but as it was not PH, Ace had to go to school as usual. He also had extra Mad Science lessons that day and so I had to go pick him up from school. As it was also the day of the teacher parent student meeting and we were going home by ourselves, we reached home really late that day.

When we reached home, our indian neighbour, Y was along the corridor. Her family was decorating their door and so the very excited Ace who received a slime from his teacher as a reward for being a good boy was excite to share the slime with Y.

One good turn deserves another and Y said that her parents bought her some sparklers and she wanted to play them together with Ace. So she invited Ace to come to her house later when he is done bathing and having dinner.

So right after dinner, Ace Chua ran to Y's house and saw them doing prayers while I chatted with my other indian neighbour V. I found out taht all the powery designs they put on their doorway is actually similar to what we do during CNY. The designs are to attract the goddess who is goddess of wealth so that they will invite money into their house:)

The kids playing with the sparkles...

Ace gave me a sparkler so that I could join in too:)

Then, Y's dad tried to light this butterfly shaped firework that actually started to fly around... so we thought we better move to the rooftop in case the watchman gets upset:)

The remenants of the butterfly fireworks..

I found out that fireworks are actually banned in dubai BUT leh, every diwali, you still hear alot of sounds of firecrackers going off.. because there will still be people who sell them illegally... no shop one.. they approach you while you are on the streets and then use some sort of secret code to transact lah.

Anyway, Y's mum also came up to the rooftop and usually, I don't speak to them as they dun look very friendly.. But the experience up on the rooftop was very different from my usual experience of them.. haahahah:)

We started chatting and Y's mum was surprised to find out that I was from Singapore as she thought I was from Shanghai:) wahahahahahaha.. I think hor, in an indian person's mind, a Singaporean is more similar to them than a chinese person from china.. so somehow, she became really warm towards me and even invited me to her house for some sweets...

I told her Ace has to go to bed but she insisted and I was thinking this happens only once a year lah.. it will be a good experience for both myself and Ace and so I said ok...

Y's mum fed us some snacks that she made by herself. Usually, i am no fan of indian snacks as they are way too sweet but she said she made these by herself.. and it is only polite to try:)

Not bad lah.. not too sweet.. Ace asked for something to drink and he got a yogurt drink:)

Wahahhahahaha... she even let me dabao some for Max:)

And she kept thanking me for visiting her house:)

All in all, a lovely experience and a wonderful Diwali ;)


It is interesting how I never had a chance to celebrate this while I was in SGP but actually got to do so in Dubai ;)

PS: My cooking teacher neighbour also made some potato thingy for me.. so tasty lor!:) But I dunno wat it is called and how to make it.. but super nice!:)

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