A lot that Little India does for me...

On every visit to Little India, I think of how absurd the name is. An oxymoron if ever there was one. An impossibility! ‘Little’ and ‘India’ don’t ever go together. India is gigantic, populated to the brim. Little is probably the most underused word when describing the country.

Here in Singapore, the attempt was to create a miniature or a little version of it. They created the version alright, but like the original, it is anything but little. The district spreads along Serangoon Road. It is an endless maze of lanes, shops, eateries and temples. And teeming with people, round the clock.

I love to go to Little India. Its sights and sounds are the closest I can get to home here in Singapore. The earthy smell of the tandoor, sweet scent of jasmine, fortune-telling parrots, heaps of turmeric and red chilli powder, boisterous sardars, aunties decked from head to toe in gold, jay-walking, blasts of Bollywood music, even the occasional pan masala stain.

The visit to Mustafa Centre is a must every month, for that packet of Amul butter, Everest garam masala powder and paneer.

But my favourite thing to do here is observe the tourists who come from India. And believe me, every visitor from India to Singapore will visit Little India. They’ll come in hordes, in those tour-operated buses, always too loud so eavesdropping is easy. My countrymen will visit every shop in every lane, squeeze their way into every alley at Mustafa, ask the price of everything, convert it into Indian rupees, then gloat/complain to whoever cares to listen about how you get it at one-fourth the price in India.

It’s true. I know it because I did it too, when I came here on holiday three years back. I spent more time in Mustafa than in Sentosa, comparing prices.

Little India is as Indian as you can get in a foreign land. A walk on its streets cures my homesickness every time. One of the biggest problems I faced when I moved to Singapore from Mumbai was getting used to the organised way of living. I still get intimidated by the orderliness of this city. But a short trip to Little India and its chaos, and I feel at home again.