Sunday, June 5, 2016

On an Island (Mauritius)

The last time I blogged here was about 5000kms from here when I was at the Indian capital. I have moved on in so many ways since then and here I am now on this island in the Indian Ocean not too far away from the African island country Madagascar.

Ways have been difficult, but what I've found here has been happiness.

It's been the reversal of the climates here since it's the southern Hemisphere. It's winter here in the month of June when it usually rains heavily in Kerala, where I was born.

Now, in the first site, Mauritius looks very similar to a quite village in Goa. A lot of people here are racially Indians and follow Hinduism and celebrate almost all Hindu festivals (both north Indian and south Indian).

The food is quite interesting too. There is curry and rotis like in India, although not so spicy. I am also totally in love with the signature dish you can find in a local restaurant called bol reversé. Rice with a soup of vegetables and chicken (or fish) served on the plate reversing the bowl with its contents.

Although officially, English is the language of Mauritius, almost everybody speaks French or Kreole (a colloquial version of french). So I had to make sure I knew the greetings and trivialities in French in order to move through daily life.

There are also a lot of people who speak Hindi and Bhojpuri and it always makes a wonderful conversation when I meet a Mauritian Indian who speaks either of these languages.

Apart from the struggles of being an expat living alone, Mauritius has given me a very peaceful and quite life.

The traffic is way better than in India, with proper roads and sidewalks everywhere and the vehicles actually stopping for pedestrians to cross the road, which is barely the case in India.

Mauritius is also a place with so much green wilderness everywhere; in the cities and places inhabited by people there are so many trees and gardens that are part of houses, lined along the roads of just part of the urban landscape everywhere.