Mutton Mania

Merdeka Morning.....ok it was 8am.Was awake.The first thing that came to mind was ..Shall I go for it?..it's one of those things in my life's check box that i want to tick.By then Gideon(my son) comes to me and say appa we are ready for Butter Toast(their way of saying to go the Old Town Cafe)..so here I am putting away the thought I had earlier on.It was 11 am when i was done with breakfast .And I get an SMS from my school colleague Mrs N.'Hey its at 1230pm if u are dropping by' I exclaimed...That's it! I am going . Texted my best buddy 'hey wanna eat mutton in a temple? I knew she would be melted like a chocolate hearing my suggestion...in fact as buddies whenever we are chilling it will be either booze or eating...n of course music is always there with a game of pool.So now I got a partner in crime to go for this mutton thingy.What we were going for was for a lunch that is served after giving sacrifice to the Deity Muniswarar.(its like a local guardian deity).It involves the slaughtering of goat(s). (We didnt bring our camera-so no photos) A quick dash and we were there at the temple.People were just trickling in.My colleague was not there yet.My buddy says 'Its one of those moments where i wish I was your colour' I bursted laughing.She was a fair toned Malaysian.Anyway ,we just waited in car...n my Mrs N drops by with her family.They were all cheerfull with her dad tagging along too.he was very jovial and informative. We entered the temple..back in my head my imagination was running wild...'What happens if the priest there starts saying 'I smell someone here is not here to worship but to eat only...and the whole congregation starts to come after me.''Or what happens moments before the goat is sacrificed it runs to me...and they decide to sacrifice me..?By then I realise that my hunger was making me hallucinate.Nevertheless Mr Nathan assures me that the goat was slaughtered in the morning..Otherwise we would be having our lunch at 4pm! The prayer rituals started ..my buddy and I were at the sides not participating but carefully watching whats going on.Towards the end of the ritual we started heading to the makan area.It was two long tables with plastic chairs.There we were seated.Opposite us was Mrs N her family. they started serving the food..deep down in my heart I was ready to get a very microscopic small piece of mutton.They started serving with rice and vegetables .even that taste awesome. The guy serving the mutton came to me..to my utter amazement he was very generous in giving me a huge portion of mutton.I looked around and everybody was getting huge amounts of mutton on their synthetic banana leaf! The moment of truth came.I put my mouthful of rice dabbed with a chunk of mutton...HEAVENLY!It was soft never as soft before for a mutton.It was just so soaking with mutton juice(as I would call it).the rice blended with the mutton curry and some vegetables.What else can I say.my buddy next to me nodded in agreement.It was one of those quiet lunches I had with her because we were just savouring the essence of the mutton to the max. But I manage to capture the true essence behind this lunch outing,everybody was smiling.people were waiting patiently for their turn to seat. The guys serving the food served with humility and a smiling face. Across me a mother feeding her son patiently a sight that i wished my camera was there.My colleagues dad who was making jokes and kept us feeling at ease.My best Buddy next to me enjoying the food. After the food ,my colleague's dad approaches me and asked when was the first goat sacrifice?...before I could try answering(by the way i didnt know the answer LoL)..he says when Abraham was asked to sacrifice the ram instead of his son. that struck a chord in me. Almost all religion gatherings in the world have fellowships involving food and eating.Maybe man wanted to find a reason to eat together and have to come up with a reason for it...emm something to ponder on for me