Compiled by C.ARUNO, TEH ATHIRA YUSOF AND R. ARAVINTHAN
HINDUS in Kedah will be able to celebrate Thaipusam after a public holiday was announced by the state government, Malaysia Nanban reported.
Thaipusam is not a gazetted public holiday and every year the community is left speculating which state will announce a public holiday.
This has been particularly sensitive in Kedah, with two major temples in Sungai Petani with a chariot procession.
State executive councillor Wong Chia Zhen announced the Kedah government’s decision to observe Thaipusam as a public holiday.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor approved the holiday during an exco meeting following appeals by Wong and Indian leaders.
Thaipusam is a public holiday in Johor, Kuala Lumpur, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Perak, Putrajaya and Selangor.
> Fortune-tellers in India have resorted to using mice to divine their customers’ futures after a ban on keeping parrots came into effect, Makkal Osai reported.
In a well-known gimmick, Indian fortune tellers have their parrots pick cards from a stack, which then are interpreted to predict the fortune of the customer.
However, the ban on owning such birds came into effect a few years ago and is apparently being enforced more strictly in many states.
This nearly destroyed the livelihood of the fortune-tellers who apparently did not see it coming.
However, one such astrologer cleverly pivoted to using trained mice to pick the cards instead.
The man, who was identified as Murugesan from Thenkasi, Tamil Nadu, reportedly caught a few mice at his home and trained them to pick the cards.
This has attracted considerable attention and customers are queuing up to get read by Murugesan and his mice.
The team charges between 30 (RM1.52) and 50 rupees (RM2.54) per customer.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
