There were only 4 houses over at my level including my house. In between the 4 houses are the lift and stairs. The neighbour that are closer to my house are Chinese. The other two neighbours are Indians.
Yesterday morning, heard a number of people talking and popping by to my Indian neighbour. Didn't know what happen. Thought they had some gathering.
In the afternoon, when my parents wanted to go out with my grandma (I am still under 2nd last day of MC for Chicken pox plus I wanted to study, I didn't went out with them. When the lift arrived, what they saw pretty much shock them. The Indian neighbour brought up a corpse covered under a piece of white cloth. There is no elderly staying at my neighbour so we wondered who it might be.
This morning, my mum heard from the Chinese neighbour (auntie) next door. She said that it was the uncle who past away (should be at most 50+ yrs old). He past away on Friday over the night and it seemed like the cause is heart attack or something like that. This uncle was the one who in the past will drink till drunk and pee at the stairway or even in the lift.
Just now, my chinese neighbour kind of gossip a bit with my mum and apparently, my dad had spoken to that uncle on Wednesday or Thursday morning and my neighbour husband had also chat with him a couple of days ago.
While listening to all these 'gossips', heard that the Indian auntie (whom husband past away) had been seeing another guy. Even go out in bike with the guy and even bring the guy home. That day while the Chinese uncle talk to this Indian uncle, the Indian uncle even told the Chinese uncle about this. The Chinese uncle even asked out of concern if he was alright and he said there is nothing he could do. We did not expect that he would past away out of a sudden just like that.
Well, enough of gossip. Today was the 1st time of my life seeing a Indian 'leaving'. There were many people today at their house. Once in a while, they would come out. Some stood at the lift lobby, some sitting down on the plastic chairs that were placed temporary there. Some will even stood at my corridor.
As Chinese, we kind of believed that kids are very sensitive to these kind of event, etc. Today is Sunday so by right, it won't be a problem but my aunt had to go back to work for a while so my cousins have to come over. When it seemed that they were bringing the dead uncle out, my mum asked me to close the living room windows. It was also because if my cousins stood on the sofa, they could see what happened in the corridor. Another reasons was because there were people smoking at the corridor and the smell diffused into my living room. I had to stay near the door to prevent my cousins from going out to see what happened as my mum was outside with the Chinese auntie. They wanted to see.
When they carried the uncle out, I went to take a look. There was a guy in front blowing a shell like horn. There were like 8 guys carrying him out in a coffin with many colourful flowers on top of the coffin. Out of these 8 guys, 4 of them are topless. They had white strips on their faces. They did not take the lift. They carried the coffin down using the stairs. When they were out of sight, my mum brought the Chinese auntie to my room where they could see what happened downstairs. My neighbour could not see from her house.
I went to my study room to look. There was a modified lorry to transport the coffin and the corpse. It was painted kind of gold. At the back where the coffin will be placed, the wall was covered in glass so it was visible from outside. There were yellow flowers hanging around the glass pane.
From my window, I could see that there were other people looking out of their window seeing what happen. Even saw an ignorant Muslim family who are driving, wanting and insisting to get the lorry to shift (it was in the middle of the road in the carpark) so that it can they can drive past. The driver could not take it and wanted to shift for them yet they reverse back. (-.-)''' Guess this Muslim family came visiting due to their Hari Raya yesterday.
When they carried the uncle downstairs and along the road to the lorry, I can see that the coffin is not covered. The uncle was covered in many flowers with only his face visible. His face was also in white strips. It was also only then that I see that all the Indians were not wearing any shoes.
Before bring the coffin into the lorry when they were in line and pretty close to the lorry, they started to sway the coffin side to side while they proceed nearer to the lorry. Once they placed the coffin into the lorry, the wife followed by the daughters and a number of others (supposed immediate family members) walked 3 rounds around the lorry with their palms placed together in front of their chest. Then there were a few guys throwing flowers on the lorry head.
I missed this part. My mum said the elder daughter took the burning pot of something like lantern and board the passenger seat of the lorry. While they closed the door to the coffin, there were 2 guys placing a piece of blue cloth over the wife.
While the lorry started to drive off, the guys in front continued to throw flowers over the front of the lorry and the 4 topless guys and another guy were sort of pushing the lorry 'to make it move'. I stayed and watch till they were out of sight.
After they left, the Chinese auntie also left my house while continuing to chat with my mum. As I wasn't with them when I watch what happen downstairs, I understand that they thought the coffin was covered and wonder why they did not heard any form of nailing sound. I told them that the coffin wasn't covered and the flowers covered all except the face. The auntie and my mum was shocked and at the same time the auntie was relieved that she did not see.
While my mum was still chatting with the auntie, we saw that the Indian neighbour brought out bags of stuffs to throw (we assumed they were belonging like pillow, etc of the dead). They even brought out mattress. They washed some water with flowers out along the corridor and sweep the water along the drain towards the lift. I supposed it was their way to sweep of bad luck or so but it doesn't seemed right as there is no drainage pipe at the drain near the lift. So the water either flow backwards or will be sweep up to the floor together with the flowers. Then they took out a piece of cloth (looked unwanted, and dirty) and sweep along the drain towards the lift. My mum could no longer take it so she decided to bring a dust-pan over for them to help them clear the flower that they tried to sweep with the cloths but when my mum walked over, they had managed to clear the flower.
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