KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 ― Deepavali is set to be the first major festival to be celebrated in Malaysia since the Covid-19 restrictions were eased this year. 

Those celebrating it have been busy making various preparations to ensure that everything is perfect.

This includes shopping for necessities and areas like Brickfields and Klang are the usual spots people head to buy them.

Malay Mail took a look at these two areas and a carnival in Subang Jaya, and found that they experienced a high volume of customers.

Both areas are known to sell traditional clothing, accessories, house decoration goods, prayer products, and Deepavali cookies, as well as ingredients for those who wish to bake their own.

Even on weekdays, the roads were extremely congested, with some people making their way out of the area after shopping while others were still looking for parking.

They were seen keeping to Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) such as the wearing of face masks and social distancing.

It was apparent that many are eager to celebrate the Festival of Lights this year after missing it in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic with some outlets offering special offers and discounts to increase sales. .

Deepavali preparations ramp up despite fear of Covid-19. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Many people met by Malay Mail expressed their delight at the opportunity to shop for Deepavali, despite their concerns about moving in busy locations due to fear of Covid-19.

Klang

Vinorshiinie Tinesh Kumar, who went to Aruna Textiles in Klang to shop, said she was worried about shopping in crowded areas and getting infected, despite her eagerness to shop for Deepavali.

"I’m worried because of the pandemic and excited because we get to travel across the borders to celebrate with everyone,” she said.

Vinorshiinie also said that she was happy to go back to her hometown, Teluk Intan to celebrate Deepavali with her family.

Similarly, Sree Jaya, 29, who came with her mother to buy sarees and bangles, said she had to buy items quickly because she was afraid that she would be too busy for shopping later on.

"We don’t know if we will have time for the shopping or not, whether we will shop or not. That itself is something unimaginable. But it’s happening now and we are excited about it,” Jaya said.

Store owners and staff were seen doing their best to manage the crowd from violating the SOPs imposed on them.

Sri Murugan Store (Klang) manager, Alagesan Nadarajan, 73, said it was difficult to supervise the public, especially during the festive season.

He said some shoppers misinterpreted his instructions to wait outside while waiting for people to finish shopping and exit the store, since management only permitted 30 customers at a time.

"They want to come inside, and look at the things we have as a family, but when we don’t allow them, they feel annoyed and worried. Sometimes they use all kinds of languages,” he said.

Raaji Silk Palace manager Raja Moorthy, said people were following the SOPs and obeying his instructions as his management only allowed five customers to enter at a time and they were given 30 minutes to purchase products.

He added that Raaji Silk Palace, which has 12 outlets nationwide, expected to experience an increase in customers as Deepavali approached.

Brickfields

This area was equally packed as Klang.

Yogeswary Markandoo, 68, said she preferred walking into a shop to purchase items rather than online.

"Nice to see the things in solid form, not from online because we like to see what are the goods that we are buying.

"Last year we couldn’t do that, we had to do it online,” she said.

Margaret Chang said that she felt safe shopping in Brickfields because people were following SOPs and store owners were taking preventive precautions to avoid Covid-19 infections.

"Normally I’ll shop at the Deepavali Carnival in Bukit Jalil. But this year there’s no carnival there, so I came to Brickfields as early as possible to avoid the crowd.

"I feel safe shopping in Brickfields. As you can see, people are practicing social distancing and most importantly wearing a face mask,” she said.

New Malliga Enterprise( Brickfields) says that the number of customers coming for Deepavali shopping has increased. ― Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

New Malliga Enterprise saleswoman, Harshini Ratnasinge said many customers have started coming to her store since the government relaxed the travel ban.

Harshini added that they were visiting the shop to purchase Deepavali kolam, biscuits, and accessories.

She added that her shop also offered flour for murukku since most of the elderly customers prefer to make their own snack rather than buy it.

However, she stated that only 20 buyers are permitted in the shop and each buyer will have an hour to purchase the products.

Besides Klang and Brickfields, people also went to the Indian Fashionedge 4.0 Deepavali Edition carnival in Subang Jaya. ― Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

Indian Fashionedge 4.0 Deepavali Edition carnival

Malay Mail also visited the Indian Fashionedge 4.0 Deepavali Edition carnival organised by Agenda Suria Communication Sdn Bhd at Murfos Gallery in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Its exhibition manager, Vithya Shahline said the event's goal was not only to groom Malaysian online Indian businesses, but also to allow the community to conduct Deepavali shopping while adhering to mandatory Covid-19 SOPs.

According to Shahline, the first session of the carnival lasted three days from October 15 to 17, and the second session which began on October 22 would end on November 3.

Shaline added that many Indians attended the carnival to buy essential items for Deepavali including sarees, jewls, house decoration and prayer items.

"We are going at 250 capacity per time and definitely 250 people won’t come at one time but if that happens, we will actually have to stop the crowd.

The Liv Sarees founder, Liviya Suwaminathan, 25, who sells imported sarees from India, said she felt confident to handle customers because the carnival only welcomed fully vaccinated shoppers.

"For now, the crowd looks like more compared to last year because the cases have now started to reduce slowly and most importantly many people have been fully vaccinated.

Sreevin founder, Devi Santhani,33, who sells benzoins and incense sticks said many people came to buy prayer items from her, which are handmade.

"As a special edition, this year we have come with rose water incense sticks,” Santhani added.

Sundaravadivu, the founder of The Essential Soapcrafter, thanked the government for enabling vendors to market their items as the Covid-19 situation improved.

Sundaravadivu also arranged lucky draws for buyers who purchased personal care goods from her during the carnival, such as body butter, shower gel, moisturising cream, pure oil lotion, and soap.

"To be honest, last year Deepavali was a very sad thing with the MCO and high number of Covid cases, so we couldn’t go out.

"But this year thank God everything has subsided and we were able to open this booth and thanks to the government for allowing retailers to open shopping booths.” 

Some people consider it wise and safe to attend indoor Deepavali carnivals as long as the SOP is followed. ― Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

Desmond Durai, 27, said the public should not be worried about Covid-19 because the country was now witnessing a decline in daily cases and the majority of individuals have had both vaccine doses.

"I’m very very excited for this year's Deepavali, I never thought the cases would go down.

"Everything is better now. Too bad, last year Deepavali we did not celebrate as well as this year.

"I think it’s safe to say that we can come out to this kind of event,” he said.

Kalyani Subramaniam, 26, said people were mindful of their responsibilities to safeguard the freedom of movement given by the government.

"I feel like it’s safe now because the cases are going down and I can see people are taking precautions as well. Besides sanitising, distances are being followed,” Kalyani said.

Sarah Raj, 25, said this year was going to be a "blast”.

"This year I’m super prepared and I’m here today because i really want to shop,” she said.