Bonding time: Gayathri (right) helping her mother bake festive biscuits for sale at their booth at the Southern International Deepavali expo in Johor Baru.
JOHOR BARU: Biscuit seller S. Gayathri’s ability to speak Mandarin has helped to pull in more customers to her mother’s booth at a Deepavali fair here.
The 34-year-old from Perak said her ability to speak Mandarin was thanks to her primary and secondary education at Chinese schools.
“When my sister and I were young, my mother decided to send her to a Tamil vernacular school and me to a Chinese school to get the best of both worlds.
“I went to SJKC Uk Ing followed by SMJK Nan Hwa, both in Sitiawan,” she said in an interview.
When she was younger, she did feel slightly frustrated, especially when doing her homework as she could not discuss her Mandarin lessons with her sister, said Gayathri.
“Luckily, my Chinese neighbours were there to help me.
“Looking back as an adult, I am thankful to my mother for sending me to Chinese schools as I got to learn a different language,” she said, adding that she speaks Tamil at home.
Gayathri, who works as a customer service executive at an automotive firm in Kuala Lumpur, said she took a month off to help her mother at their booth at the Southern International Deepavali expo at a mall in Taman Sutera Utama here.
Her mother M. Rajaswari, 56, has been making biscuits and cakes using her own recipes for the past 20 years, she said.
She added that her mother started baking as a hobby and when she stopped working as a cleaner due to health reasons a few years ago, she started focusing on her home-based business.
Gayathri also said that her mother’s biscuits and cakes were made with less sugar as customers were getting increasingly health conscious.
“I really believe in her products that’s why I urged her to take the first step and sell them to the masses by joining a fair.
“This expo is visited by people of various races, including tourists from China.
“That’s when I use my Mandarin-speaking skills to recommend the products and also explain what Deepavali is about.
“They are usually surprised that I can speak Mandarin well and would proceed to support our business,” she added.
