A woman is said to be born three times: the first being her real birth, the second is when she gets married and the third when she gives birth herself. Each time, she is given a new life, in which her role changes and to which she has to adapt. Most would agree that the best ‘life’ ever would be the time between her birth and her wedding. She is pampered, mostly by her parents, taken care of very carefully, for she is the flower that they have to look after until she blooms into a beautiful bride.

This particular moment brings out the most contradictory feelings, for a daughter’s wedding is the time when happiness hand in hand with sorrow sees the bride off to her new home. Which is why weddings are usually celebrated with lots of celebrations because it usually means a new stage of life for the couple, and here in Mauritius, it’s certainly no different. Being quite influenced by both the western and eastern culture, our weddings tend to have a touch of both.

In my family, we have tried to keep most of the rituals, if not all, that one has to go through when getting married, especially for the bride. From what I have experienced, the parents and the relatives all manage to turn the already-not-so-simple wedding into a long one, but one which prepares the bride both mentally… and physically. Keep reading…

Tags: bride, Mauritius, muslim, rituals, traditions, weddings

The soft touch of the wind once more connected me with the world outside, its caress bringing the most peaceful feelings ever. Of course, I was not to know that such tame breeze would suddenly transform into such a powerful gust as my eyes would fall on the pigsty that was till yesterday, the jogging track. At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes; there were plastic bags, cups, takeaways and god knows what else everywhere, and the most ironical thing was… all the huge litter bins placed at various locations were empty. Not even one person had had the idea of throwing his trash in them, instead of dumping it wherever he could.

The first words that came to my mom’s mouth were “how uncivilised!”. No need to say that the same words sprang to my mind as this scene appeared before me. It was really disheartening to see a place where people usually come to relax in the morning before starting out a stressing day. Frankly speaking, it was disturbing; I still cannot get out that picture out of my head, and neither can my mom. All we can think about is this big mess, wondering how people could be so primitive as to pollute a public place and not even reflect on their actions. Keep reading…

Tags: Doom, Environment, Mauritius, politics

August 2007: The beginning of Doomsday, a subprime crack is found in the US housing market.

2008: The nightmare begins. The crack widens across the global financial landscape, causing the collapse of major banking institutions, falls on stock markets across the world and credit freeze, the shockwaves triggering a full-fledged economic crisis, with the more sophisticated countries already in recession and the outlook of developing countries deteriorating rapidly.

2009: The world economy finds itself in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Keep reading…

Tags: conference, economic crisis, Mauritius, politics, recession

Grande première a l’ile Maurice, les Bloggeurs se rencontrent au restaurant Mc Donald à Port Louis pour mieux faire connaissance et pour faire une mise à jour du nombre de bloggeurs sur la toile Mauricienne. Yashvin, et Morina, initiateurs du projet “ Mauritian Bloggers Meeeting” étaient tous deux présents tout comme de nombreux fans du blog-o-sphere Mauricien. ( I would love to see that on the front page of a paper :$ )

(Translation: A first in Mauritius, the Island’s bloggers meet at Mc Donald’s in Port-Louis, to get to know each other, and to make an update on the number of bloggers on the Mauritian web. Yashvin and Morina, the ones behind the “Mauritian Bloggers Meeeting” project, were both present, as were numerous fans of the Mauritian Blog-o-sphere. )

Since a few days now, Yashvin and Morina have been sending invites to all the Mauritian Blog Community and being bloggers, bbZuSh, Sayuka and myself were all interested to go to the meeting to finally meet all these virtual friends. I’m sure by now, we must all be online to blog the meeting.. but rather than being one of the many who are going to do so, I would like to count you our (bbZuSh, Sayuka and me) adventure before coming to meet our fellow friends today. Keep reading…

Tags: Blog, Caudan, Featured, Mauritius