When we visited my cousin’s new house on the second day (correction: it was actually the first day) of the Chinese New Year, we went upstairs to check out the terrace. Soon, there were two young Indian boys riding a bike back-and-forth in the street below and yelling “Kung Hee Fatt Chai!” at me, wishing me “Prosperity”. They saw that I was taking pictures and posed. The one standing on the axle of the back wheel said in Malay, “Satu lagi!”, so I took one more. I replied, “Kung Hee Fatt Chai!” just like they said it even though the pronunciation is a little off. This continued a few more times. They got louder and upped the ante to, “Kung Hee Fatt Chai, Auntie!”

“Don’t ‘Auntie’ me, Thambi.” I muttered. Being called “Auntie” is being “Ma’amed”. Thambi means “little brother” in the Tamil language. This time, they continued, “…..Hung Pao na lai.” (Hand over the ang pau.) They repeated, “Kung Hee Fatt Chai, Auntie! Hung Pao na lai!” Of course! How clueless of me! The two boys were hustling for some “Red Envelopes containing lucky money”. Well, it’s been many years since I rode my bike hoping to score an ang pau from people in the village or from friends’ parents.

Here, people my age are usually married and married people usually give out ang pau to unmarried people, especially to children. Do I waste the kids’ efforts and tell them I’m not married and that they’ll not be getting ang pau from me, or do I just go make two for them? Since Kenric and I have already broken with tradition and had given my sister’s children ang pau, I told the boys to wait. “Tunggu!” “OK, Auntie!” Ugh.

Don’t Bring Your Friends

Kenric and I had two 1 Ringgit bills, one 5 Ringgit and a few 10 Ringgit. Since I didn’t have the heart to give them only 1 Ringgit (USD $0.25) and we wanted to give them the same amount, RM 10 it is. I’m pretty sure that’s a bigger ang pau than they expected from strangers. When we opened the gate, the boys were quite excited as I handed them their red envelopes, but I also had to cut my losses. “OK Thambi, you jangan bawa kawan cari saya, huh. Saya belum kahwin. Saya bagi ang pau you dua orang saja, huh.” (OK Thambi, don’t bring friends looking for me. I’m not married. I’m just giving ang pau to you two.)

“OK, Auntie!” They smiled for the camera and rode away. I hope they don’t waste time looking for me next year at my cousin’s house!