31 Oct 2011, Posted by Preeta Samarasan in Blog, 0 Comments Tagged Childhood, Deepavali, Food, homesickness, Malaysia

Festival of Lights

by Preeta Samarasan

Before I became a mother, I thought I’d take my child(ren) back to Malaysia for Deepavali every year. For various reasons, I haven’t made that particular trip with my daughter since she was born in 2009, although we’ve been to Malaysia three times as a family. On Deepavali day this year, I found myself once again trying to assuage my homesickness by listening to old Tamil songs on YouTube (be warned, unless you grew up watching Tamil films, you are likely to find these unbearably cheesy) and performing the meagre rituals I’ve been able to inject into our rural French lives.