The Village of Lime on the Eve of Deepavali

Singapore, with its multi-cultural influences, is a city of festivals. Deepavali (or Diwali), the Hindu festival of lights that commemorates the triumph of good over evil was celebrated on Monday, just as decorations in anticipation of Christmas began making an appearance along Orchard Road.

Deepavali is one of two festivals, the other being Pongal, that is celebrated in a big way in Little India. Known as Serangoon, and also the village of lime, Soonambu Kambam or Kampong Kapor, Little India is one of Singapore’s three precincts that has retained an ethnic flavour. Recently named as one of the world’s coolest neighbourhoods for 2022, the precinct comes alive in the lead up to the two festivals. Not only is there a street light-up that in my opinion tops the annual Christmas light-up at Orchard Road, the neighbourhood also sees a often more than lively festive bazaar.

The festivities bring much life and colour to Little India, and certainly puts one in the mood to celebrate — especially this year with most Covid-19 pandemic restrictions lifted. With the eve of Deepavali falling very conveniently on a Sunday — a day when throngs of Singapore’s South Asian guest workers make their way to Little India, the streets seemed even busier with crowds descending on the precinct to soak in the atmosphere and to make last minute purchases of festive snacks and sweets, clothes, jewellery and festive decorations.

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Seeing the light through Deepavali Open House 2022

There is no better time to head down to Little India than in the lead up to Deepavali or Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. That is when the precinct, now a focal point for the ethnic Indian community, takes on a festive atmosphere with a street light-up that never fails to disappoint and with crowds of shoppers filling much of its ever so busy streets.

A view of the Village of Lime, with the brightly lit façade of the Indian Heritage Centre or IHC, which will be the focal point of the Deepavali Open House from 1 to 23 October 2022. Completed in 2015 the IHC’s façade was inspired by the baoli, or Indian stepwell.

Beyond soaking in the atmosphere on the streets, there is also an opportunity to participate in programmes organised by the Indian Heritage Centre (IHC) for its Deepavali Open House, which runs over four weekends from 1 to 23 October 2022. During this time, admission to the IHC will be free for all. The open house this year sees the return of the popular trishaw rides (Little India Trishaw Trail – Deepavali Edition) that will offer participants a unique way to see the lights. There is also a chance this year to take in the lights from a very different perspective: from the upper deck of an open top double-decker bus through the Deepavali Big Bus Tour.

View Little India’s annual Deepavali light-up this year from the back of a Big Bus during the Deepavali Open House.

Other activities to look out for are Mandala Dot Painting Workshop, Deepavali Cooking Demonstration with Chef Devagi and Chef Vasunthara, Interactive Storytelling for Kids, Cultural Craft Activities. More information can be found at Indian Heritage Centre – Deepavali 2022.

Cultural Craft Activities include creating Ramayana shadow puppets …

Shadow Puppet play.

Community Lego Mural

Community Lego Mural

Oil Lamp decorating.

Interactive Storytelling for Kids through which the triumph of good over evil or the story of Deepavali is told.

An extension of the street light-up inside the IHC.

An Abundant Celebration

2020 could be thought of having been a lean year. Much of the year was dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout as a result of it. As we move towards the halfway point in the first month of the new year, there is renewed hope. It is perhaps apt that the first cultural festival that we celebrate in 2021, the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal, is all about celebrating abundance.

The Tamil harvest festival of Pongal brings life and colour to Singapore’s Little India.

One thing that Pongal brings to Singapore and in particular to the streets of Singapore’s Little India is great colour. Even if the situation on the ground does seem much less subdued, this seems to also be the case this year. A walk around Campbell Lane, Clive Street and Dunlop Street last evening — the eve of the festival, the colourful displays of festival essentials such as decorated clay pongal pots, floral garlands, stalks of sugarcane, de-husked coconuts and fresh produce, could be seen. The festival, which heralds the arrival of the Tamil month of Thai is celebrated over a four day period in mid-January. The first day of Thai, the festival day proper, falls on 14 January this year.

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Sights and sounds of Pongal on the streets of Little India

Preparing for the harvest festival

One of the great joys of living in multi-ethnic and multi-religious Singapore, is the array of festivals wonderful festivals that bring life and colour to the streets. Just as Chinatown prepares to welcome the Chinese New Year this January, we see Little India come to life for the Tamil harvest festival Pongal. Besides the annual light-ups, the two ethnic precincts also feature crowded street bazaars with the festival essentials on offer.

In Little India, the Pongal is especially colourful with displays of pongal clay pots, produce representing the harvest such as sugarcane – adding much flavour the area around Campbell Lane – where the street bazaar is set up in the days leading up to the festival. There is also a chance to see livestock in the form of cattle and goats, which are brought in for the celebrations each year.

The celebration of the festival proper, begins with the eve – the last day of the Tamil month of Margazhi, which falls on 14 January of the western calendar and carries on for three more days. A description of the festival is  provided by Mr Manohar Pillai in a post on the Facebook Group “On a Little Street in Singapore“:

Pongal is the biggest and most important festival for the Tamilians, since ancient times and transcends all religious barriers since it signifies thanks giving to nature and domestic animals. Cattle, cows, goats, chickens are integral part of a farmer in India. It is celebrated for three days in Tamilnadu starting from 15th to 17th January. Vegetarian food will be served only in Hindu households. Thanksgiving prayers will be offered to the Sun, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Ether, without these life cannot be sustained on Mother Earth. The celebrations comes on close to the harvest season which just ended and Jan 15 is the beginning of the new Tamil calendar.

Clay Pots are used to cook flavoured rice with traditional fire wood in the open air and facing the early morning Eastern Sun. The Sun’s early morning rays are supposedly to bring benevolence to the household. The cooked rice is distributed to all the members of the household and with it the festivities begins. Everyone wears new clothes and very old and useless clothes are burnt the previous night.

The next day the farmer turns his attention to the animals especially the Cattle and Cows.

The third day all people celebrate it with gaiety and grandly.

More on the festival and how it is celebrated in Little India can be found in these posts:

• Soonambu Kambam welcomes the month of Thai
• Pongal in the Village of Lime
• Colours of the harvest
• An annual invasion of sugarcane
• More photographs
• Pongal Open House (Indian Heritage Centre)
• Pongal (LISHA – Little India SHopkeepers Association)

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More photographs taken this year:

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The “attractive” 1940 built public-housing block in Little India

I have long admired the building that houses The Great Madras, a boutique hotel on Madras Street. The edifice in its incarnations as a hotel has brought a touch of Miami to the shophouse lined streets of a busy corner of Serangoon. The opportunity to have a look beyond the building’s gorgeous Streamline-Moderne façade came this Architectural Heritage Season with tours organised by the URA. The hotel won an Architectural Heritage Award for the efforts made in the restoration of the building,

Deliciously decorated, the hotel’s common areas on the ground floor provide a great introduction to its well thought of interiors. The lobby and a restaurant and bar, which opens up to the outside is what first greets visitors. There is also a barber shop and a utility area at the building’s rear. A sliding privacy door hides the hostel-like accommodation on the same floor. Here, its private sleeping spaces carry the names of established travel influencers.

The reception area.

The hotel’s rooms are laid out across the building’s two upper floors. Corridors decorated with quirky neon signs and ventilated through the steel-framed glass windows of a forgotten era, provide correspondence to the rooms. It is along a corridor on the second floor that a pleasant surprise awaits. This takes the form of an especially delightful and photograph-able view of the hotel’s retrofitted swimming pool, framed by a circular opening in the pastel pink party wall that separates the pool from its sun deck.

A corridor on the upper levels.

The alterations made in the building’s interiors does make it hard to think of the building having been put to any other use other than the current, and quite certainly not as a public-housing block of flats it was built as in early 1940, There is of course that Tiong Bahru-esque appearance and quality that may give the fact away but the standalone nature of the block will mask the fact that it was the Singapore Improvement Trust or SIT that built it. The SIT – the predecessor to the HDB – besides having had the task of addressing the demand for public housing, also took on the role of town planner. The public housing projects that it embarked on tended to be built in clusters, such as in the case of Tiong Bahru.

The rear courtyard.

The swimming pool.

There is however a good reason for the Madras Street block’s isolation. A 1940 report made by the SIT holds the clue to this. It turns out that the block – erected to take in the area’s residents displaced by the demolition of older buildings – was meant to have been part of a larger improvement scheme that the SIT had planned for the area. The scheme was to have seen the demolition of a dozen “old and unsanitary” buildings in the months that would follow  to provide for a southeasterly extension of Campbell Lane past Madras Street. There was also to have been the metalling of the area’s roads and the construction of much-needed drains. The orientation and alignment of the 70 by 60 feet block does suggest that it was laid out with the extension of Campbell Lane in mind.

A view of the surroundings through steel framed windows.

The scheme’s overall aim was to provide accommodation in greater numbers, make an improvement in (transport) communication and the layout of of the very congested area. There was also a need to address the area’s poor sanitary conditions. It is quite evident from what we see around that the scheme did not go much further. Perhaps it may have been a lack of funds, as it was with many public schemes in those days. There was also the intervention of the war, which was already being fought in Europe by the time of the block was completed.

Another view of the hotel’s windows.

From the report, we also get a sense of the “attractive” building’s original layout. Three flats were found on each floor, hence the three addresses 28, 30 and 32, giving the building a total of nine flats. Each flat contained three rooms, one of which would have been a living room that opened to the balcony. A kitchen cum dining room was provided in each flat, as well as a bathroom and a toilet – “in accordance with Municipal Commissioners’ requirements”.

A spiral staircase in the rear courtyard.

The report also tells us of how much the flats, which were fully booked before the building’s completion, were rented out for: $23 per month for ground floor units and $26 per month for the units on the upper floors.

More on the restoration efforts that won the Great Madras Hotel the award: 28, 30 & 32 Madras Street Charming Revival.

Restored granolithic (Shanghai Plaster) finishing on the column bases.

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More photographs:

 

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Colours of the harvest

The Tamil month of Thai brings much celebration to Singapore where a large majority of its Indian population is of Tamil ancestry. One festival that brings colour to the streets of Little India is Pongal, the celebration of the winter harvest over four days. The streets are particularly lively in the lead-up to the festival as decorated clay pots, sweets, flower garlands and sugar-cane (which I am told signifies sweetness and longevity) fill up Campbell Street – where the annual Pongal bazaar is set up.

Sugarcane – signifying sweetness and longevity.

More on the festival can be found on my previous posts, as well as on Your Singapore. A description of the festival by Mr Manohar Pillai is also provided on a post on the Facebook Group “On a Little Street in Singapore“:

Pongal is the biggest and most important festival for the Tamilians, since ancient times and transcends all religious barriers since it signifies thanks giving to nature and domestic animals. Cattle, cows, goats, chickens are integral part of a farmer in India. It is celebrated for three days in Tamilnadu starting from 15th to 17th. Jan’, 2016. and strictly vegetarian food will be served only in all Hindu households. Thanks giving prayers will be offered to the Sun, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Ether, without these life cannot be sustained on Mother Earth. The celebrations comes on close to the harvest season which just ended and Jan,15, is the beginning of the new Tamil calendar.

Clay Pots are used to cook flavoured rice with traditional fire wood in the open air and facing the early morning Eastern Sun. The Sun’s early morning rays are supposedly to bring benevolence to the household. The cooked rice is distributed to all the members of the household and with it the festivities begins. Everyone wears new clothes and very old and useless clothes are burnt the previous night.

The next day the farmer turns his attention to the animals especially the Cattle and Cows.

The third day all people celebrate it with gaiety and grandly.

Decorated Clay Pots.

Sweets for the sweet.

A bazaar stall doing a roaring trade.

A well stocked shop.

A dairy cow.

Campbell Lane dressed for Pongal.

More sugarcane.

Flower garlands on sale.

The festive atmosphere also spill over to the nearby streets.

An annual invasion of sugarcane

Photographs taken in the heart of the Serangoon area on the eve of Pongal, one of the many colourful expressions of the various cultures found in Singapore that living on the island provides an opportunity to immerse oneself in. Pongal is a harvest festival that is celebrated over four days. Originating in southern India, the festival sees the streets off Serangoon Road come alive with celebration with much of the activity centered on a Campbell Lane invaded seemingly by stalks of sugarcane.

Campbell Lane is where a Pongal bazaar annually paints the street in the colours of the harvest, seen in the purple of black sugarcane, the green of bananas, ginger and turmeric leaves, as well as in the colours of the earth from traditional clay pots. Hard to miss is also the orange and gold of sweet treats and the burst of joy that the floral garlands bring, mixed with the hues of the many who throng the streets in search of the essentials for the festival. 

More on the festival and how it is being commemorated in Singapore can be found at the Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association’s website.

Soonambu Kambam welcomes the month of Thai

Soonambu Kambam, the “Village of Lime” or “Little India” as the people in the tourism board would like us to know it takes on a festive appearance this time of the year as it prepares to welcome the Tamil month of Thai, the first day of which falls on 14 January 2014, a day when Thai Pongal is celebrated. Another festival to look out for in the month of Thai is Thaipusam, which falls on 17 January this year.

Pongal is a harvest festival that is celebrated mainly by the Tamil community in Singapore and brings Campbell Lane (and Hastings Road this year) to life – with a bazaar coloured by steel and earthen pots, as well as lots of festivities in the lead up to the festival – which is celebrated over a four day period, and during the festival to look out for. The celebrations in the Village of Lime starts today along with a street light-up along Serangoon Road (the light-up will be up to the end of January). For more information on the festival and festivities, do visit the Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association’s website.

Multilevel conversations

Conversations, taking place at different levels, as observed at the Masjid Angullia (Anguilla Mosque) located at Serangoon Road. The mosque was built on wakaf land donated by the prominent Angullia family. Although the main building we see today is one that is from rather recent times, having been put up in 1970, the entrance gatehouse we do also see today is one which is associated with the previous building (which was demolished in September 1969) and has been put up for conservation under the recently released URA Draft Master Plan 2013. The previous building was thought to have been put up before 1898 on land provided in 1890 by Mohammed Salleh Eussoof Angullia, a trader who had come to Singapore in 1850 from Gujarat in India. More information on the mosque can be found at the MUIS website.

The call to prayer.

The gatehouse which has been put up for conservation, seen with the crowd after sunset prayers.

The main mosque building – put up in 1970.

A annual walk of faith

Thaipusam is perhaps the most colourful of the religious and cultural traditions brought in by the early immigrants to modern Singapore that is today celebrated on the streets of Singapore. Celebrated by Tamils from southern India during the full moon of the Tamil month of Thai, the festival in Singapore is notable for the 4 kilometre procession over which devotees carry a “burden”, in the form of a kavadi. The procession which starts from the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple along Serangoon Road and ends at the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple (Chettairs’ Temple) at Tank Road sees hundreds of devotees every year making their way along the route carrying kavadis which range from milk pots placed on their heads to more elaborate kavadis such as spike kavadis and chariot kavadis. The spike (or “vel”) kavadis is perhaps the most elaborate and involves the piercing of up to 108 spikes onto the body. The chariot kavadis involves the attachment of hooks to the backs of bearers which is attached to ropes pulling a chariot. Devotees often also have other piercings carried out including with skewers through the tongue and cheeks with holy ash applied to the area before hand. The piercings are said to inflict no pain as well as leave no scars (no blood is spilled as well) – devotees go through a 48 day spiritual cleansing prior to Thaipusam – which involves a strict regime of fasting, abstinence, and prayer. More information on the festival can be found at the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple’s website.

Photographs from Thaipusam 2013

(Black and Whites)

(In Colour)

 

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Photographs from previous years’ Thaipusam observations:

Thaipusam (2012)
Thaipusam (2011)
Thaipusam (2010)

A similar festival celebrated in the Tamil month of Panguni in the Sembawang area:

Panguni Uthiram (2012)
Panguni Uthiram (2011)

More than just fishy business

The wet markets we find in Singapore today are much more orderly versions of the wet markets in that Singapore I that grew up in. Yesterday’s markets were always lively, serving not only as places to obtain fresh produce during a time when refrigerators were less common, but also as places where people could come together at a social level. In the age of refrigerators and supermarkets, wet markets are today a lot quieter and are now much less of a focal point. Many come to life only during the weekends and just before festive occasions. Despite this, wet markets are however still very much a sensory treat and wonderful places to discover the texture, colour and smell of a Singapore which through these markets we cling on to. One market I particularly enjoy visiting is Tekka Market. The market had in its previous incarnation been one I have long held a fascination for, its passageways filled with the wonderful aroma of spices and the sight of mutton vendors standing over logs which served as chopping blocks. Finding itself across the road from where it originally was, the market is one which still attracts shoppers from across the island in search of some of best cuts of beef and mutton; the wide selection of fish its fishmongers seem to have more of than those in other markets do; and the exotic offerings such as buah keluak that seem to only be found there.

A walk around the Village of Lime

A walk I recently took was around what is one of my favourite places in Singapore and what has to be one of the more colourful districts in Singapore – the area we now refer to as Little India, an area which was referred to as “Soonambu Kambam” in Tamil or “Kampong Kapor” in Malay which translates into “The Village of Lime”. The area is one that takes a life of its own every weekend when thousands of migrant workers from the Indian sub-continent congregate in the area and one, that in the lead up to the Hindu festival of lights, Deepavali (or Diwali), takes on a very festive atmosphere not just with the annual Deepavali street light-up, but also with the Deepavali bazaars around the area.

Men playing carrom – a popular game in the Indian Sub-Continent.

The Deepavali light-up with the weekend crowd.

The Anguillia Mosque during sunset prayers.

Colours of Deepavali – a walk through a Deepavali bazaar.

Many migrant workers from India and Bangladesh congregate in the area every Sunday bringing much life and colour to Little India.

Indian sweets are popular items – jelebi, pastry soaked in very sweet syrup.

An art deco hotel building in Mayo Street – the former South Seas Hotel.

A boy watches a five foot way tailor at work on the sewing machine.

A busy hole-in-the-wall shop.

Many gather to catch up with friends.

Anywhere’s a good place to sit around and share the week’s experiences.

A busy car park.

Balls of dough – bread in the making to feed the hungry.

Even with the crowd – it is possible to find a place to have a quiet moment.

Catching up on the news – the text on the newspapers reflect the many different parts of the sub-continent the migrant workers are from.

Many makeshift food stalls appear to cater for those gathered.

The more upmarket establishments also do a roaring trade.

Thaipusam at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple

Having photographed the procession of Kavadis on the streets over the last two Thaipusam celebrations in Singapore, as well as with Thaipusam falling on a work day this year, I decided to set off early this year to take a look at the preparations of the Kavadi bearers at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Serangoon Road at the break of day. The colourful Hindu festival during which ‘Kavadis‘ or burdens, some which involve piercing of various parts of the body, are borne by devotees, is one which captivated me as a child and one that still contiunes to fascinate me to this day. It can possibly be considered to be the last authentic religious festival that is still enacted on the streets in Singapore – albeit with some restrictions which give it less of an atmosphere than celebrations that take place in our northern neighbour Malaysia.

Pongal in the Village of Lime

An area in Singapore I find myself from time to time wandering in is the area that is referred to as Little India today. It is an area full of life and awash with colour, one that over time, has be successful in retaining its ethnic flavour in a way that the other ethnic districts on the island have not be able to. The area is one that has developed from its early days as a southern Indian settlement that had been established along Serangoon Road. It was an area referred to as “Soonambu Kambam” or “The Village of Lime”, an area that during my childhood drew many from all over Singapore. The old market, Tekka, had been the main draw with the hard-to-find range of spices and exotic ingredients, as well as a fine collection of mutton butchers that were available. It was in accompanying my mother to Tekka that provided me with an introduction to the area which developed into a fascination for it. That would have been more than four decades ago, when Singapore had been a very different place. Time has since made its mark on the area – that old Tekka market set has since been pulled down with the market moving right across Serangoon Road. It is not this incarnation of the old that now draws visitors to the area, but perhaps a new market that now pulls the crowds in. The new comes in the form of Mustafa – a departmental store whose reputation has spread far and wide attracting many in search of a bargain crowding its narrow passageways.

A reflection off a discarded mirror in a back lane. A walk through the Village of Lime does allow for reflection through the windows it provides to the past.

The former Tekka market (with the red roof tiles) was a big draw for many in Singapore (the former Kandang Kerbau Police Station can be seen across Serangoon Road from the old Tekka market) (photo source: National Archives of Singapore).

It is not the old nor the new market that I seek when I visit the area, but it is for the area as it still is today. Despite the encroachment of non traditional businesses – the rag-and-bone trade, budget lodgings, non traditional cafes and watering holes, the soul of the area as it was has still very much been left intact, becoming very much a focal point for many more – the new immigrants and transient workers, who seek the comfort it offers them of a home away from home.

I am drawn to the area by what it still is today.

The Village of Lime is today one that exhibits many moods, moods that are influenced by the time of day, the day of the week, and also the time of the year. The brightest moods are ones seen during the many Hindu festivals – celebrated maybe less boisterously than in the days of old, but one that still adds a flavour that only the area can have. The festivals bring much colour and activity, whether it is the lights and crowds that the lead up to the festival of lights, Deepavali, brings; the noisy street procession during which an extreme act of faith and devotion – the carrying of a Kavadi during Thaipusam is seen; or the four day harvest festival, Pongal, celebrated at this time of the year. Sundays also bring with it a somewhat festive mood, when crowds of transient workers on their precious days off throng the streets and open spaces to escape from the monotony that the long work hours and the stifling confines of their crowded and far-away dormitories bring, creating a new buzz on the streets in the area.

Floral garlands at this year's Pongal bazaar - festivals bring much colour and buzz to the streets of today's Little India.

The Pongal bazaar along Campbell Lane.

Wandering around over the weekend had the added bonus of the Pongal bazaar at Campbell Lane in the lead up to this year’s Pongal celebrations. It is during the lead up and during the four day celebrations that Campbell Lane bursts to life, being where the main festivities are held. This attracts many to the stalls at the bazaar where much of what is needed is to be found – colourful floral garlands, clay and steel pots, and stalks of purple sugarcane and more. The hub for the festivities is a marquee a corner of which an enclosure has been set up to hold cows and goats – a rare sight in urban Singapore, to be honoured during the festival. To get the best feel of the festivities and to soak the atmosphere up, it is best that Campbell Lane is visited during the evenings, when the streets are also lighted up for to celebrate Pongal.

Stalks of purple sugarcane during Pongal.

Cows are honoured during the harvest festival.

A cow is milked at the Pongal celebrations.

Clay pots, decorated with painted mango leaves on sale - new clay pots are used to cook pongal - sweetened rice cooked in milk, as offerings for Pongal.

Steel pots on sale.

Ginger on sale.

Even in the absence of a festival which does change the mood of the place, much of the area’s charm can still be discovered. Best seen on foot, the streets around are littered with colourful double storey pre-war shophouses and is awash in colour. Even when, as I did, one wanders in the relative calm of the morning, there is no shortage of colour on the streets. Sundry shops found around the Dunlop Street area with their displays of fruits and vegetables are ones that immediately catch one’s attention and are ones that shouldn’t be missed.

Having a cup of tea on a five-foot-way outside a cafe.

Onions and potatoes on sale at a sundry shop - essential ingredients in southern Indian cooking.

Gourds on sale.

Wandering around the area and getting lost in the maze of colour is certainly not without reward. There is an astonishing number of places in which the appetite worked up walking around can easily be satisfied (not that anyone needs that excuse for that). And even when satisfying one’s food cravings isn’t on the agenda, it must really be difficult to resist the calling from that nice heartwarming cup of Masala Tea …

A lady dressed in the traditional sari, shops along Dunlop Street.

A lady carrying a young child at a sundry shop.

A world apart: a leisurely stroll through some of the streets of Little India

Continuing on our back to school walk from Thieves Market, my old schoolmates and I crossed the busy Jalan Besar to what seems a world apart from the rest of Singapore: the charming area known to us as Little India. Set just a stone’s throw away from the city centre and its skyscrapers that dwarf much of the older areas around it, this quite delightful part of Singapore is one that I have always enjoyed wandering around. Bounded roughly by Jalan Besar to the east, Sungei Road to the south, Race Course Road to the west, and Kitchener Road to the north, the main part of the Little India area is alive with the colour and activity that much of the streets of Singapore seems to be missing. The area had mostly developed in the late 1800s, when the cattle rearing trade that thrived from the watering holes that the swamps in the area had provided. Many of the names used for and in the area in fact bear the evidence of this, Belilios Road and Lane being named after one of the pioneers of the trade, I.R. Belilios, as well as obvious names such as Buffalo Road, Kerbau Road and Kandang Kerbau. The emergence of this trade, one that was dominated by immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, attracted many other economic migrants from the sub-continent to the area transforming it into a hub of economic activity as well as a home for many Indians immigrants.

Crossing Jalan Besar to Little India, we passed this beautiful pre-war shop house at the corner of Jalan Besar and Veerasamy Road.

A newspaper advertisement for the White House Hotel at the height of its glory.

The route that we had taken to Sungei Road had taken us within sight of an Art Deco style building at the corner of Jalan Besar and Sungei Road. This had once been the White House Hotel, a building that I have never failed to notice. Its distinctive green windows had long reminded me of the panes of the windows and doors that was with me for the six years I was at St. Michael’s School. The building also served as a marker of the midway point of a journey that I would take once a week in my lower secondary school days. Then I would attend technical lessons at McNair Road in the Rumah Miskin area, and getting to school after workshop classes involved a ride on the bus that would take me through Jalan Besar, Bencoolen Street and Bras Basah Road. The building is also positioned such that it also serves as a marker for the south-eastern corner of Little India, and back when I was in school, the hotel had seemed to have seen much better days. These days, having been given a makeover and painted a pleasant light pastel blue, the hotel which is run by the budget chain Hotel 81, has some of the dignity that the building perhaps deserves for its architectural style restored.

The Art Deco styled former White House Hotel, which might have once been a rather grand looking hotel marks the end of Jalan Besar at its junction with Sungei Road. As a schoolboy I used to pass this building on the bus that would take me from the technical workshops at McNair Road to the school I attended on Bras Basah Road, marking the midway point of the bus ride.

Making our way through Veerasamy Road, we noticed that much of the area now seems to be dominated by the rag-and-bone trade … the evidence of which is not difficult to notice: small trucks buried in paper and cardboard pulling alongside shop houses that overflow with used items; weighing scales chained to posts on the streets; trolley loads of cardboard boxes being pushed around by elderly folk, are within sight everywhere.

The area on both sides of Jalan Besar seemed to be dominated by the scrap and rag-and-bone trade ...

Evidence of the rag-and-bone trade ... a weighing scale for weighing newspapers and cardboard boxes.

Trolleys of flattened cardboard boxes being pushed through the streets of Little India are a common sight.

The quick walk through the very colourful streets also took us through Kampong Kapor Road. Turning left into it from Veerasamy Road, where we could see the Kampong Kapor Methodist Church, somehow out of place in the surroundings. Built in 1930, the Art Deco church building was built to house a growing congregation which had outgrown the original church building in which the church had started. The original building was incidentally the Middle Road Church building that is now part of Sculpture Square. It was where we had earlier in our walk, stumbled upon Ngim Kum Thong’s very intriguing art exhibition.

The streets in Little India are washed in colour.

Kampong Kapor Methodist Church on Kampong Kapor Road. The church started as the Middle Road Church, the building of which is now Sculpture Square.

More of the Art Deco style Kampong Kapor Methodist Church building built in 1930.

Continuing on our walk through Cuff Road, it was interesting to notice that what is still essentially an Indian enclave, shows signs of a strong Chinese immigrant presence. Many of those involved in the rag-and-bone business are in fact Chinese nationals. As well as that, there was also evidence of some western influences. Where else would you see a sign over what is essentially an Indian café selling a fare of fried Indian snacks such as pakoras and samosas as “Hot Chips”?

The area since has through its history been a magnet for migrants from India.

These days, Little India also attracts migrant workers from other parts of the world as well.

Little India these days is also a mix of east and west.

The sight of newspapers and magazines displayed on lines was once a common sight all over Singapore, and is today still commonly seen in Little India.

A five foot way - typical of pre-war buildings in Singapore ... now serves as a convenient parking space for all kinds of small vehicles ...

Moving back northwards along Serangoon Road, we crossed over the road near its junction with Belilios Road to the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. The temple is one of the oldest Hindu temples in Singapore, the history of which is well summed up in the temple’s website. The temple is dedicated to Kaliamman, more commonly referred to as Kali, the Destroyer of Evil, a popular goddess with the workers who were said to have been involved in the construction of the temple in the late 1800s.

The Sri Veeramakaliamman on Serangoon Road is one of the oldest Hindu temples in Singapore, having been constructed in the late 1800s.

Inside the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple.

A Hindu priest inside the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple.

Floral garlands and offerings on sale at Belilios Road next to the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple.

After a short break at Chander Road where we had Masala tea at Masala Hut, we then made our way to Tekka Market, passing by the North Indian Shree Lakshminarayan Temple, and walking through the mall at Belilios Lane / Krebau Road, through the small lane by the former residence Tan Teng Niah, and out to Buffalo Road. This took us across to the HDB complex that houses the new Tekka Market. The original Tekka Market was actually located across Serangoon Road from where the current market is, and had when I was a child, been a source of fascination for me. I remember the shopping trips there with my mother during which I would take in the wonderful aroma of spices and look forward to seeing the mutton sellers towering over their huge chopping blocks which had been cut from large logs. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that smaller versions of these chopping blocks are still used by some of the mutton sellers – the only difference being that they stand firmly on the ground and do not seem to tower over me any more. That certainly give me a shot of nostalgia as we continued to wander around the market.

Scenes from the colourful shophouses of Chander Road ...

A liquor store on Chander Road.

Beet Root on display at Buffalo Road.

Tekka Market today ...

Fresh fish at Tekka Market.

The log chopping blocks that I was very taken with as a child.

Out of Tekka Market, we decided to head back to school again by MRT. This was not before we encountered a long snaking queue that we might have mistaken for one of the queues that offer a pot of gold to a lucky punter in one of the many lotteries that we have here. These queues get especially long when the prize on offer is not just a pot of gold, but the equivalent of several pots to the tune of a few million dollars. Thinking it was probably a queue for one of these, we were quite surprised to see that it wasn’t. The queue had in fact snaked its way to a POSB ATM machine! I had only prior to this, seen monster ATM queues during the seasons of shopping frenzy, that form in the Orchard Road area, and from my recollection, I don’t think any of these were anywhere as long as the one I was looking at that day – perhaps only a third the length of what I was seeing!

The long snaking queue at the POSB ATM ...

A cup of coffee today as it might have been yesterday

Sometimes, a chance encounter with a person or a chance discovery of a place or a building can be just so delightful. This was so on one of my wanderings through the streets of a Singapore that time has left behind, when the discovery of a charming little coffee shop, nestled in an obscure corner of a part of Singapore that I know little of and set amongst quaint streets and buildings that are reminiscent of a time we have long discarded, seemed almost like a godsend to a soul longing to be transported back to that forgotten time.

A cup of kopi-O to start the day.

Seeing that little coffee shop, sitting quietly as if wanting to be overlooked, brought back memories of the wonderful kopi-tiam (coffee shops) of old, where the robust aroma of thick black coffee would greet the morning crowd who, sitting on the rounded wooden chairs by the heavy marble top tables, would greedily devour the simple fair of roti-kaya, kopi-O, and soft boiled eggs.

The coffee shop at the corner of Clive Street and Upper Weld Road.

Kopi-O served in a cup reminiscent of the coffee shops of old.

One morning, early for work, I decided to venture back, perhaps in an attempt to persuade the little shop to bring me back to the days that I so miss, sitting down at a table set amongst rickety marbled top tables of yesteryear that were a little worse for wear, sans the rounded wooden chairs that would have gone with it. Ignoring the signs of today in the newer generations of tables and plastic chairs that were interspersed with the tables of old, and perhaps the dates on that the calendars that were also reminiscent of those of yesteryear hanging on the tiled walls reminding me of where I was in time, it did seem for a while that I was back to a kopi-tiam far removed from ones that today attempt to recreate the charm of the kopi-tiam of old with sterile and air-conditioned outlets that seem so necessary in our modern world, with modern prices to go with it.

Preparing a cup of coffee in the traditional way.

There I sat patiently as the smell of roti being toasted over the red-hot ambers of a charcoal fire as is traditionally done, filled the air, mixed with the aroma of kopi-O being brewed with the help of the customary coffee sock blackened through use, into a metal pot with a long spout placed over a grill to keep warm over the same charcoal fire. Observing the insides of the kopi-tiam, I was delighted with the sight of objects that brought the charms of the old kopi-tiam back to me: coffee-socks slung next to the preparation counter with shelves lined with coffee cups and glasses; a big bowl sugar resting on the preparation area; empty condensed milk cans with holes punctured on the semi opened lids through which a loop of raffia is attached waiting to be used as take-away containers for coffee; white tiled walls with old-styled calendars resting against them ….

Coffee socks hanging by the preparation counter.

Loaves of roti (bread) lying in wait.

Eggs to be boiled.

Even calendars reminiscent of the calendars of old are displayed on the walls.

Another calendar reminiscent of the calendars of old displayed on the wall.

Very reminiscent of the days of old - when coffee is taken away not in a plastic bag, but in a washed condensed milk tin.

The roti-kaya was served as it would have been, lightly toasted and darkened slightly by the charcoal ambers, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a thin layer of kaya (a pasty sweet spread of coconut jam) and a generous slice of butter wedged in between two slices of toast cut in two. For a while, I was back in the kopi-tiam of old, but alas, it was only for that fleeting pause from what was today, sitting there in the midst of the reminders of yesterday.

Kopi-O and roti-kaya.

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Afternote:
One more thing that I remembered on the coffee shops of yesteryear was seeing men gathered around the tables, with shirts unbuttoned or undershirts rolled up above their tummies, slurping coffee from saucers! 🙂