Ramsing's Blog

The Spices of Life – Launced at the Council Chamber, City of Port-Louis, On 15 July 2010, by the Lord Mayor of Port Louis. (Sent to all newspapers.)

Who is Bawansing Sunkur?

• Elected Councillor, Ward 3, City of Port-Louis, in 1977
• Chairman, (pi) finance Commission, City of Port, in the 1980s
• Founder of Mauritius Young Labour League in the 1980s
• Adviser of the Congress for writers and composers – Creativity – held at Teacher Training College and M.G.I in the 1980s

What impressed me most in the book:

“Is it true or false brown sugar is ruining the country?…
Is it true or false Mauritius has more than 25, 000 drug addicts?…
Is it true or false a dose of brown sugar costs more than two hundred rupees?…
Is it true or false if multiplied by 25, 000 it makes more or less Rs 5 million a day?…
Is it true or false it amounts to Rs 150 million a month?…
Is it true or false its consumption overlaps Rs 1 billion a year?…
Is it true or false there is a prosperous parallel drug economy in the Island?…
Is it true or false there is an enormous wastage of human and financial resources?…
Is it true or false those at the helm of power are forced to beg for foreign currency abroad?…
Is it true or false…?”

Or
“L’oeil de ton oeil c’est l’oeil de l’Oeil!

Le sourire de ton sourire c’est le sourire de Sourire!

La beauté de ta beauté c’est la beauté de Beauté!”

(English)

The eye of your eye is the eye of Eye!

The smile of your smile is the smile of Smile!

The beauty of your beauty is the beauty of Beauty!

Or
“NO SMOKING” or “Le Tabagisme Passif Est Nocif à la Santé” (French) – Passive Smoking Is Dangerous to Health.

Or
“Is woman fit only to “lav kasrol dité dan la kouzinn?”… etc

The commentaries on the Spices of Life at the launching ceremony on the 15th July 2010 at the Council Chamber, city of Port Louis. The launching was carried out by the Lord Mayor of Port Louis.

Going through the book we come across:

Karuna’s heart aches, aches and aches:

Where are those days which were the genesis of togetherness?…
Where are those days when she was geocentric of his universe?…
Where are those days when her kiss was a myrrh and bubbling champagne?…
Where are those days when her kajal was a miracle to give birth to poetry?…
Where are those days when the arabesque and geometric designs with mehendi on her hands were glamorous festoons
destined to celestial angels?…
Where are those days when the sound of her voice was an acoustic for exultation?…
Where are those days when as a fairy she was glorious sherbet to his lips – nay, green almond to his teeth?…
Where are those days when the mere touch of her body electrified him like a laughing chandelier?…
Where are those days when the irises of her eyes were iridescent opal, topaz, emerald, ruby, amethyst, lapis-lazuli, sapphire, turquoise, black spinelle, onyx of his paean?…
Ah! Ah! Ah!…
Where? Where? Where?

She is ripped asunder with sorrow. Sorrow for what has happened to her. Sorrow for what is happening. Who will tell her:

Every man or woman lives in a quizzical world…
As…
Every silver lining in the sky…
Has a cloud…
So…
Every joy in the heart of man…
Has…
A drop of tear in the eye…
A…
Pearl of tear to shed.

Where it seems to me poetry is at its height, depicted with a knowledgeable pen, on the one hand, while, on the other hand, patriotism is at its apogee with the national song in Creole:
Maurice mo lékèr

Diégo mo gâté

Tromelin mo chéri

Rodrigues mo lamour

Maurice mo lékèr

To biyen zoli – to biyen zoli – kouma enn bouké flèr

Bouké – bouké flèr

Kozé! Kozé! Kozé!

Éna zépis – péna zépis!

Éna! Éna! (chœur)

Maurice mo lékèr

To biyen zoli – to biyen zoli – kouma enn bouké flèr….”

Pillé! Pillé! Pillé!

Tappé lamein anba! Tappé lamein anba!

Tappé lamein là`o! Tappé lamein là`o!

Bouzé! Bouzé! Bouzé lérin!

Baré! Baré! Baré mo vini!

Dansé! Dansé! Dansé pou nou zoli Péi!

Going through the book again we meet: God created Mauritius and then created Paradise. Don’t ask me who says it!

Though a jewel in the Indian Ocean with Diego Garcia, Tromelin, St Brandon, Agalega and Rodrigues with nautical miles and miles of economic zones as decreed by United Nations’ Resolution…

Though our seabed is a cornucopia – is lined with multi-farious riches (PETROL? GASES? polymetallic nodules, pharmaceutical elements, crustaceans, fish, etc and etc)…

Though Mauritius is now in size as large as or bigger than Madagascar or France with the new maritime economic zones – Oh an ISLAND-CONTINENT with a population of only a little over one million!…

Going through the book once more, if we find the Author says, while talking about illness:

THE REMAINDER REPOSES IN FAITH…

FAITH IN YOUR ACTIONS…

FAITH IN YOU…

FAITH IN PRAYERS…

FAITH IN GOD.”

On the other hand, we start to wonder, when the Author says:

Every nano-second every second every minute every hour every day
every week every month and every year
things happen and are happening and will keep happening.
Thing is eating thing.
Man is eating man.
The food you eat and the water you drink
when you pass them out of your body and
leave them on the earth they become the food and drink of another.
The food and drink of the “another” become then the food and drink of yet another.
It is an endless cycle of eating and drinking.
There is perpetual waste and there is perpetual recreation.
This is the nature of the world (Universe) we live in.

Let me end with these from the Author:

“education is a permanent lottery in the hand of your offspring”.

Music is alchemy

Music abates tension in life

Music is balm to the heart

Music brings peace and felicity

Music causes trees to give sweeter fruits

Music makes animals – cows – give more milk.

ELEGY
(For Dr Hon J.B.David, Minister of Regional Affairs, Rodrigues and Outer Islands)

Oh ye sun! Oh ye moon! Oh ye stars bear witness to the elegy of Maurtius Young Labour league!

Oh my beloved country! Oh my beloved country! Oh my beloved country!
Weep at the untimely demise of an intellectual stalwart!
Oh weep! Weep! Weep!

Oh ye men and women young or old of the Tiger of the Indian Ocean are not thy wounded heart trickling tears of blood through thy eye at the unexpected passing away of a grumbling lion in our August National Assembly – an Orator unpaired in depth and conviction OF THE IDEAL OF THE LABOUR PARTY?

Oh ye members of the Labour Party must ye not be aggrieved at tintinnabulation of doom of an indefatigable mouthpiece of a true Labourite?

Oh ye wind! Oh ye rain! Oh ye rainbow – nay oh ye Universe when comes such another!

Bawansing Sunkur
Founder Mauritius Young Labour League