A Fijian Life

Practice Quietness (in other words STFU)

Dear Reader

I’m mindful to the very irony hence my hesitation in penning this post down as it’ll probably only add to the noise roaring around us all in this moment of time which sure is a weird one. I mean I’m sure this planet’s seen many an eerie times pass it by but for us mere here-on-borrowed-time current occupants – this definitely is unprecedented.

In a role reversal, millennials have been heard screeching at their parents to get back in the house this past week. Celebrities in Mumbai are doing their own Continue reading →

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An Indian Heritage

Is It Time We Burnt Down Ram as Well as Ravan?

A box on the dining table has been piquing the entire household’s curiosity as it catches each one’s eye. A return gift from a recent wedding, a akhand jyoti diya. Having shifted through quite a few Delhi markets last month, I estimate the hosts probably paid around 200 rupees for it (approx. FJD$6 – even less in bulk buy) so I am not too impressed with it. Neither is Suruj (considering the extravagant kind of money she blew on presents for this wedding). The only person in the household dazzled by this exchange is the head of the household who feels Continue reading →

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A Not-so-Flowery, Genda-ful Startup

May You Find Your Courage In 2018

If I had to choose a word for 2017, it’d have to be ‘accept’. This year came with an unyielding ferocity that made us all give in to its will.

Despite such global outcry, look at us at the end of 2017 having accepted Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America.

Say what you may – here in on our island nation, Fiji First is just about to finish it’s first term as ruling party.

As the workers of the Airport Terminal Services sit outside in a strike Continue reading →

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An Indian Heritage, Kuch Bitiya Ki Baatein

Dear Desi Parents, Your Children Are Not Your Property

“Ji, papa.”

Insert pitaji, daddy, baba, abbu, bauji, appa – whatever your term of reference. “Yes, father” is a fundamental code of conformity drilled to desi children as their unquestionable submission to the patriarchal head of the household. Right from the Vedic era some 1600 BCE, desi parents have been revered as Gods living on this planet demanding a worship-like devotion from their offsprings.

My adolescent years could be divided into episodes of me and Suruj battling Continue reading →

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A Fijian Life

With Love & Gratitude, Happy Fiji Day!

Sunday evening and there’s three men hanging off a cherry-picker truck ahead. Unable to just mind our own businesses and keep driving on, in usual Fiji-style, the traffic slows as people wind down their windows and peek out to investigate what exactly they are doing (as if we’re all personally their immediate supervisors Continue reading →

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A Fijian Life

Getting Fiji’s Definition of Progress Right

People think it’s great. That bits of Nadi has never looked better. But I’m sitting here in traffic with 70 other cars and there’s nothing so great about watching 1 adult and 2 high school kids (all in their uniforms) trying to cross the new 4-lane road in Namaka right through the flowers and all in the lane dividers – just 30 meters before the crossing lights.

This 4-lane extension was promised with a lot of ‘progress’ to Nadi.
Continue reading →

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A Fijian Life, Thodi Si Unlearned Happiness

Is Your Feminism As Exhausted As Mine?

When our female Speaker of Parliament last year made those infamous comments on women aggravating their husbands to the point of them loosing it and becoming violent, I recall the backlash from feminist organisations and individuals, and the fiery debates on social media forums. I also recall how I didn’t really deem anything wrong with the Speaker’s comments at that time Continue reading →

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Thodi Si Unlearned Happiness

3 Things 2016 Has Taught Me About Time

I signed off last year on the blog with wishes of a ‘bindaas’ 2016. Bindaas, a Hindi (Mumbaiya actually) slang roughly means without any hesitations. Carefree. With reckless abandon. And by God, did I have a bindaas year.

It’s been a rough year. A stop-go kind of one. One where schedules didn’t work and plans had to be improvised from month to month. A year where you just simply did. 2016 didn’t give much time for brainstorming or coming up with any action plans. You just did what you had to do and there was no Continue reading →

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A Fijian Life

Does Fiji Still Have A White Inferiority Complex?

Freedom. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. In 1970, the British Empire after 96 years of rule over the islands handed Fiji back it’s sovereignty. This would have been the first time in almost a 100 years, a Fijian would have had the right to act and speak as a free person. Continue reading →

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