We go to Naw Ruz

Naw Ruz

Quddus and the Haghtalab (sp?) family and I decided, for various reasons, to go to the Subang Jaya Naw Ruz celebration. I ended up being pulled into the program as a last-minute announcer, and a reader for one of the performances, which was fun.

The spectacle of Naw Ruz, however, was the introduction. Quddus and I somehow (inside connections) got seated at the best table, front and center near the stage. This also gave us a great perspective on the intro. All of a sudden, the lights were shut off, and techno music started pumping through the speakers (of all songs, “zombie nation”). Then, amid the confusion, people began to gasp and look back at the entrance - where we could see two of the caterers marching in, bearing giant sticks of fire (I’m not joking). They walked at a steady pace, leading a train of caterers, all carrying a large silver tray. The process made its way to the front, and in one coordinated flash, the music was cut, the lights went on, and the caterers lifted the covers off of the trays, all to reveal...our appetizers. Man, these Malaysians love their food!

There were some great performances, and I got to meet a lot of new people, but I mostly hung out with Riyaz and Farshad. The whole event closed down by about 10:30, but the night was still young, and we all had an after-party to go to. Apparently, it is a tradition for all the Naw Ruz celebrations to reconvene at an A&W in Petaling Jaya to continue the celebrations. I know!! and A&W! It was strange, but lots of fun...I saw HUNDREDS of Baha’is descend on one A&dub, and got to meet lots of them. Also a great time. There were soo many people that you had to kind of fight your way through to go anywhere...and I use ‘fight’ lightly, because they were all baha’is it was more like “indicate your desire to move in a certain direction, and quickly be accommodated by smiling, joyful individuals”. Quddus has a near-twin in Malaysia, and they began an eating contest in that very A&W, I:m not sure what all was eaten, but I know that Quddus brought home the trophy.

After this ridiculously awesome time, we made our way (yet again) to asia cafe. It was starting to rain, and I was siding with Temily’s suggestions of turning up the music in someone’s car, and dancing in the rain, but this didn’t turn out to be a popular decision. Either way, let me give you a short run-down on Asia-cafe: when you get there, you get a table number, then you wander around a gaint food court, and order anything your heart desires, and wallet can afford, and just tell them your table number, then, as your food is finished, they bring it over, you pay, and you eat! So simple! The only thing that the asia cafe staff do is bring you drinks. The cool bit about asia cafe is the variety of food you can get, it was always good, even when I just ordered a mango shake. They also have billiards upstairs, and a giant internet cafe/nerdery, where close to 50 people play DotA at any one time.

The rest of the night was fun, and I can’t remember, but we might have played catan when we got back.

EDIT:
somehow, in the first publication of this post, I failed to mention Naw-Ruz-day. This is an inexcusable oversight, and being such, I have no excuse for it.

Another Malaysian tradition is to host giant open-house parties on Naw-Ruz day, inviting the world to come and eat food at your house. We went on a marathon of open houses, starting with Roshan's parent's place next door, and ending at Manesh's place. with two or three others (including a separate stop at manesh's).

I could, in all honesty, not eat for two days after food like that. Ridiculous.