Something I wrote last week on this blog got a lot of flak. And not just on my opinions. While I can understand the strong reaction to what I had written, I can’t fathom the personal comments and insults that went around on social media especially by people who have never met me.
If you’re one of those people who judge someone based your assumptions without actually meeting them in person then I’m afraid what you think is really your business. Continue reading
Change is inevitable and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s whirlwind stopover yesterday signs for a change of things to come in Fiji. Actually more of an ultimatum. For us to either leap forward and catch up with the global race or be forever left behind. And we Fijians don’t handle changes or ultimatums too well. We had just started coming to terms with our new national identity. We almost had made peace with the 2014 election results. We nearly had it all buried away… Continue reading
I was in the shower when I heard the unmistakable hiss of the town council’s garbage truck yet I had to peer out of the window just to make sure. There it was. Bloody unreliable. Most days it would roll around 4.pm. but days like today it rocks up at 8.45 in the morning. Pulled down a t-shirt and shot out with soap suds still clinging around my ankles. I had to whisk our rubbish bins to safety and bring them inside the compound. In the last 6 months, our bins have been stolen twice. Continue reading
Something our household hasn’t partaken in a long while is to visit extended relatives living far and further in the rural Viti. “Visiting Extended Relations” used to be a national pass-time in our recent past however thanks to the Vodafone and Digicel towers soaring high on our island hills; our mobile phones and Facebook, visiting family has now become a rather bootless sort of activity. Continue reading
My god-father once told me that 90% of anything is ‘looking the part’ and its an advice I’ve never forgotten. Unfortunately as much as I try, I don’t really look like an English teacher. Well I don’t look caucasian. White. Hence it always puts students in the dilemma whether they are getting what they have paid for with a brown-looking teacher!
I have come to dread the question, ” Teacher, where are you from?” My answer is usually Fiji Islands (sorry The Fiji Islands), followed by making circles in the air indicating Australia, New Zealand and a middle circle indicting Fiji’s location. This seems to satisfy them for a few days till they come back and ask “sooo but what are you?” Continue reading
Shyamni 