Some people, when they die, they die grand. The grandest I have seen prior to yesterday was the funeral of the late Taikor in my hometown. Seven fully robed Taoist priest, specially brought over from Malacca chanted for 4 nights. Big oak coffin, probably weighing a ton, crowds of over 500 nightly, banners and flags from as far as Indonesia and Singapore garnered the whole compound. During funeral day, eight stilt walkers dressed as the Eight Fairies, 5 big Drums and cymbals, a 5 piece band and more than 1000 well wishes from all over the country, escorted the hearse from his house to the cemetery. That was easily the grandest to date and will be the grandest for years to come for there are none that comes with his reputation remaining.
Last night, I again saw what dying rich means. The coffin was placed in a funeral parlour. Not any ordinary funeral parlour. This parlour is operated by the Nirvana Group, a public listed company which made a fortune out of the dead. The moment I walked in, I lost sense that I was attending some funeral or should I say, wake, of someone who had passed away. I thought I was in some 5 star hotel’s lobby. My blardy aching knee! They really took this business to the extreme! The 5 storey parlour was so luxuriously furnished. It has about 8 cubicles for mourning, also superbly furnished like mini cineplex. I really couldn’t find words to describe it. Even comes with free Internet access so the deceased children can keep blogging during the mourning period. You can’t even hear a small sob because the atmosphere was not sombre at all. It was like having a wedding reception in a 5 star hotel. Everybody was so happy.
How is the damage like? All in, nearly 40k. Cheap by their standards. They even let him have his choice of the hearse. He can stick with the Toyota Estima included in the package of he can send off his old and dead Daddy in a grander manner by riding the Mercedes Limo. He opted for the Limo. Add 2,888 bucks only.
July 15th, 2008
7 Comments at "Dying Grand"
dats y…no money, better dun get married. no money, better dun give birth. and no money, better dun die oso.
40k for a funeral is very cheap liao. Some wake have it at home also cost RM60k.
Eh, you sure only RM40K? My mader-in-law funeral also cost that much oredi. Not including the grave lah? My mader-in-law time, we also hired the hou-lam with the jeng-jeng-jeng crying team. One two hours job only have to pay RM600 just for the criers. But never mind lah, if that’s what make the dead happy and we can afford it, ok lah. Cos this sort of money will roll back one. Ok, that was my ex-Taoist self talking. Now, just burn and scatter my ashes into the sea can liao.
that’s a lot of dough to put in to buy ‘face’
i think other races oso don’t spend lidat.
wah!! such grand funeral, how i wish i was there. haha.
i was at the late wong pow nee (penang’s first CM) wake at his house and never before i saw so many flowers and banners. the flowers almost fill the entire garden of the house. ah and yes it was managed by nirvana too. we (those at the funeral service) were presented with a nice satin handkerchief enclosed in a small paper case. and after the funeral, we received a ‘thank you’ card from them!
And people want medical care cheap-cheap??
Got one question: When the orginisations display the banners, do they receive donations from the family? Always, or depends on the family whether to give or not?
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