South Coast hotels

South Coast hotels in Mauritius are different from North Coast ones. The ones on the North have the whiter beaches, are the most expensive ones and rank among the highest worldwide. The service there is professional to the utmost but often leaves Mauritians with a bitter taste after they've left the place. Because those are not really meant for us, and we were never expected to be able to afford those. If I change my mind about those hotels some day, I'll let you know.

The hotels on the South, pictured here, have often had to build their own little beach. They have lusher vegetation, and the atmosphere is closer to that of a Creole island. The service is warmer too, and locals are welcomed in what I consider to be the really classy manner: with a smile and warmth.

Hell is 57 varieties

Or is it? Choosing intellectual nourishment is not as simple as choosing ketchup, which is why imagination cannot and should not be limited to what already exists...Excerpts for a Guardian article:

Sometimes it's just hard to choose. You're in a restaurant and the waiter has his pen at the ready. As you dither, he gradually begins to take a close interest in the ceiling, his fingernails, then in your dining partner with whom he conducts a silent eye-rolling conversation. Each dish on the menu becomes a blur as you roll your eyes up and down it in growing panic. Finally, you desperately plump for something that turns out to be braised foot in a phlegmy green sauce.
(...)
Schwartz offers a self-help guide to good decision making by helping us to limit choices to a manageable number, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make. This is a capitalist response to a capitalist problem.
(...)
However, these self-protective responses may create new problems. John Reith, the BBC's first director general, once said that good broadcasting gives people what they do not yet know they need. If you use SkyPlus as a filter against irksomely endless choice, you will also ensure that you hermetically seal yourself from TV programmes that you wouldn't have thought you would like."

-Stuart Jeffries,The Guardian Unlimited-

Mauritian coast

This is one side of Mauritius :)

What independence means

Tomorrow Mauritius celebrates its 38th independence anniversary. It's also 14 years since we became a republic.

We became independent from the British in 1968: no blood-soaked wars here. We were lucky enough to be among the last pearls of the Empire's crown. By the time it was our turn, the British were more or less happy to let go.

Mauritius has taken itself from being an economy based exclusively on its sugar industry to one where it was able to manufacture textiles and develop five-star tourism. We have no raw materials in our soil, a blessing in disguise, since there is no gold or diamond for our politicians to slip into their pockets. We depend on our people.

Today Mauritius is facing a new challenge, similar to the one we knew right after independence. This time, there is no safety net: no sugar quotas reserved on the European market, no agreements to guarantee markets for our textiles.

We are trying to fit into a knowledge-based world. We depend more than ever on our people: business-process outsourcing is a great part of what we can do, excellent customer service and conditions in our tourism industry, sound financial regulations to attract investment, IT conception and programming to satisfy clients based around the world. The backbone of these industries is people who are able and willing to learn continuously to remain on top of the fast-evolving demands. I believe we can do it.

I'm not sure how many Mauritians realise that in the new economy, having tea at 10h and 14h and leaving work at 16h sharp while blaming the government for our problems is not really going to make a difference. We are now more than ever alone in determining our survival. We are also more than ever interdependent. We are each as responsible as the government. We are also more intolerant towards the squandering of our funds by that government.

Succeeding in and as today's independent Mauritius is far from being a pleasant stroll on the beach. More like something between rock-climbing and body-boarding. And that can be fulfilling too.

Hyphenated Identity

The term "hyphenated identity" was not coined by Ms Lahiri, but features prominently in her article. Ms Lahiri's intelligent novel The Namesake has been made into a film which will come out this year. Her story is part of the special Newsweek feature on India last week. As Mauritians, we are still coming to terms with our own multi-hyphenated identity.

I have lived in the United States for almost 37 years and anticipate growing old in this country. Therefore, with the exception of my first two years in London, "Indian-American" has been a constant way to describe me. Less constant is my relationship to the term. When I was growing up in Rhode Island in the 1970s I felt neither Indian nor American. Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen. Looking back, I see that this was generally the case. But my perception as a young girl was that I fell short at both ends, shuttling between two dimensions that had nothing to do with one another."

Newsweek, March 6, 2006

Cra-Zee

Anyone who’s ever had to tolerate my raves knows how crazy I can get about the Bombay film industry: actors, actresses, lyricists, directors, art directors, composers, cameramen, make-up artists, I know all about them. Do not ask me which part of my brain stores such trivia. It seems there’s room enough.

So imagine my awe when my very generous uncle offered me a ticket to the Zee Cine Awards which took place in Mauritius yesterday: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, all that! Despite the Class 2 cyclone warning prevailing, we joyously braved the winds and umbrella-ed our way through the rain to reach the venue.


It was odd.

Seated celebrities were separated from the rest of the audience (platinum-tickets notwithstanding) by metal chest-level barriers, which gave the very weird feeling to a number of ministers sitting with us that they were suddenly very out. Ladies who had actually shelled out the whopping Rs10,000 for the tickets still had to get soaked in their sarees (compelled by their non-celebrity status to park far from the conference centre), looking like Bollywood actresses in a dhak-dhak number long before the heroines climbed on stage.

The dreamt-up sequence of Abhishek jumping to Dus Bahane was never to materialise, Mr Bachchan having come down with the flu and decided not to come to Mauritius (probably shying away from chikungunya too).

The joke was on from the moment they all kept insisting the show was being broadcast live worldwide (Karan really digging that one in) when in fact it wasn’t. Black took all the awards and so most of the other actors were disillusioned before the show began. (It gets tiring of being asked “who do you think will win?” when everyone already knows).

Still it was thrilling to watch SRK pick up Preity for a remake of Veer-Zaara, to see Rani looking charming in her white and silver saree, and listen to two young singers belt out last year’s hits.

All in all, I’m really glad I got the chance to be there, which I would not have done had someone not thought of me. I’m happier having seen it and clearly remembering how very starkly we should draw the line between reality and show than I would have been fantasising about what it must be to attend such a show. Watching it on TV from home later was fun, because when every wrinkle had been edited out and you actually got to see the stars’ faces, it was a good show.

The “janta” of Mauritius was certainly lucky to welcome the Zee Cine Awards, if only it brings along the hordes of tourists we are now expecting from all around the world.

All about love

love (n.)
O.E. lufu "love, affection, friendliness," from Proto-Germanic.
*lubo (cf. O.Fris. liaf, Ger. lieb, Goth. liufs "dear, beloved;" not found elsewhere as a noun, except O.H.G. luba, Ger. Liebe), from PIE
*leubh- "to care, desire, love" (cf. L. lubet, later libet "pleases;" Sanskrit. lubhyati "desires;" O.C.S. l'ubu "dear, beloved;" Lith. liaupse "song of praise"). Meaning "a beloved person" is from c.1225.
The sense "no score" (in tennis, etc.) is 1742, from the notion of "playing for love," i.e. "for nothing" (1678).
Love-letter is attested from c.1240; love-song from c.1310. To be in love with (someone) is from 1508.
Love child "child born out of wedlock," first attested 1805, from earlier love brat (17c.).
Lovesick is attested from 1530; lovelorn from 1634 (see lose). Phrase for love or money "for anything" is attested from 1590. To fall in love is attested from 1423.
The phrase "no love lost" (between two people) is ambiguous and was used 17c. in ref. to two who love each other well (c.1640) as well as two who have no love for each other (1622).

-Online Etymology Dictionary-
For an idea of what the abbreviations mean, check the list.