I wanted to share about my interesting experience over the weekend. I try very much not to tell people that we attended a wake before and after a wedding in Melaka. Cos people may 'pantang'... but I guess being Buddhist, there's nothing to 'pantang' about.
The morning religious wedding ceremony was quite symbolic, with puja + chanting + hymn singing & blessing by a monk. Only a little weird cos everyone else had to stand up through out the whole ceremony including the monk except the bride & groom... Doh! So being restless, I'll walk around trying to take pictures lah... was trying out the new 50mm lense which is a problem if I try to compete with other fellow photographers all blocking my view while shooting for an 'event'. Maybe it's really meant for object/model shooting purpose only.
After the religious & tea ceremony, there's a long afternoon break to spend time before going for the wedding dinner. So me, myee & sisV tag along to ddvw's dad wake, which is actually not far away. Coincidently rev. Mahinda coming at 2pm for blessing... which turn out to be a blessing + meditation + short Dhamma talk... fuiyo that's very meaningful for a Buddhist wake / funeral. No chang chang noise, no crying, no sadness... just smiles and reflections. Rev Mahinda shared about his experience teaching Dhamma to his mother and how his mom practised the Dhamma, how she overcome the pain while suffering from cancer before her passing. Also talked about sharing of merits.
I came dressed in a dress white+black in colour, so it was fancy enough for a wedding event, also sombre enough for the wake. Bf dressed in blue+brown, while sisV attire was blue+white... so we were like ever ready to attend both wedding & funeral!
At night the wedding dinner was most fun! It was sort of a peranakan wedding, a peranakan wedding must have music/band and joget! That's what I heard from MODians... and wow it is true. It didn't take long before I was also part of the syiok-sendiri people tapping their shoes happily at the parquet dance platform... at some point, I was 'dancing' with NW's 2yo kid... yeah the boy can be really cute when you forget that he's naughty. He kept coming back to pull me out from my chair to go the dance floor! It's like he's done it before in his past life... I didn't dress in the nyonya kebaya unlike many of the locals there. Found out that the nyonya kebaya blouse is EXPENSIVE!
Many people danced along at the wedding dinner, to golden oldies played with e-keyboard that you'll never hear it at a trendy KL/PJ hotel wedding dinner. The fun part is how the very young and the very old all came together to dance naturally! Only the not-so-young-but-not-so-old people watching ;)
I felt like I'm attending a 'Malaysian' wedding dinner of the Tunku Abdul Rahman era. They say baba-nyonya people is actually a minority group in Melaka, they're neither chinese nor malay.... maybe they're just Malaysian!
So what happen to the 2nd funeral? Well that's the boy who stayed along the same street as me.. whose funeral is also Sunday. By the time I reach home from Melaka, it was almost 11am... and Myee made the turn from the main road to my house, which incidently head-on with the hearse. That's my last chance to send metta to the deceased... his family members were lining up ready to 'send' him off.
My eyes instantly went wet.
As I reached home, I came to know that he was only diagnosed with leukaemia a month ago. He had a girlfriend of 2 years. His medical bills surged to 100k.
My interesting weekend taught me a great learning experience and there's alot of Dhamma in it. I was happy and contended. I hope I can maintain this simple blissful state of mind through out my journey of life, but impermanence is the truth of life.
*can you imagine that at my funeral, all my incovar friends will be standing around singing cheerfully 'Truth of Life' with hands movements & actions... and all my relatives / other friends will look at you one kind - you siow ah?*
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