I had the opportunity to go to Mauritius last week
with my family for a vacation. While the country is
even prettier than what we had thought, it is the
warmth of the people which bowled us over. I am
writing this post to share our experiences with the
Bhojpuri speaking people there.
Picture-1:: Ganga Talao
Nearly two-thirds of the total population of 12 lakhs
consists of people of Indian origin. They are very
proud of having Indian origins and several persons we
spoke with said that Mauritius is a small India!
It
was indeed amazing to see the way Hindu
Indo-Mauritians have preserved the culture, language,
food habits etc.
Picture -2 ::Shiv Mandir at Ganaga Talao
It was such a delight to converse with them in chaste
Bhojpuri. While their common language is Creole (a
dialect of French), within their families they speak
in Bhojpuri. The moment we told them that we are
Bhojpuri speaking people, they would switch over from
English/Hindi and talk to us in Bhojpuri. This
Bhojpuri was absolutely pure without any mix of
English/French/Creole.
We could have been right in Ara
jila (my family’s native place) going by the language
we spoke! Our two young sons (“chhokdas” as they were
commonly referred to by the Mauritians!) would
sometimes respond in Hindi to them. They were promptly
admonished by them for not speaking their
matri-bhasha!
The Bhojpuri region food is available across the
island. Our hotel was full of European tourists, but
we had our fill of paratha (“faratta” is the spelling
there!) and tarkari even there! And of course the
bajka (called “baja”) and pakodas available so
commonly. The dalpoori (spelt alternately as dholl
puri or d’holl puri) we had was so delicious that we
thought of packing some and carrying it with us to
Bangalore where we stay currently! Gobhi, baingan,
lauki, konhda etc are widely used. And the style of
cooking, even in the hotels and markets is the same as
one would find it at home in India!
Picture - 3 :: Krishoo ji at his Belle Mare shop
The Hindu Indo-Mauritians are deeply religious. Every
village has a “shivala” and each house has the pratima
of Hanumanji installed at the entrance. Even the
tourist cars we traveled in had pictures of Shivji,
Durga mata, Hanumanji. We visited the Shiv Temple at
Ganga Talao (Grand Bassin). We were told that during
Shivratri all the Hindus gather here. This place also
attracts a large number of tourists from various parts
of the world through the year. We were there during
the week of Navratri and all the Hindus there were
observing the festival.
Picture - 4 :: Ganeshwari Temple
Another striking feature was that all married women
wore their sindoor very prominently. Poora maang bhar
ke! Many also wore a “mangalsutra”. Saree and Salwar
Kameez is the most common dress there. Women there are
active in jobs and businesses but their adherence to
the dress and “sindoor” was always there.
We discovered that the marriage rituals are pretty
much the same; tilak, hardi, chauthaar and gauna
even!!
Many of the people we met wanted to invite us home for
a meal. Unfortunately the trip was too short for this.
Maybe in the next trip we will do that as well!!
Picture - 5 :: A Baingan Ka Khet
We returned totally impressed by the people there. The
Mauritians who are a part of this group and reading
this post, please accept our thanks for having
preserved our culture so well even after nearly
150-200 years. To all the Indians reading this mail/article I
would seriously recommend a trip to Mauritius to
experience this great preservation of culture and to
meet the very hospitable and friendly Mauritians.
Regards
Santosh Ojha
Read below ... Santosh Ojha's Article in Deccan Herald's about his
Lahore's Visit.
