I got an education in music mostly because my grandfather (on my mother's side - Cassim Seetal) was a musician but did not want any of his kids to learn music - because it is a very tough profession. Hard to raise a family on a struggling musician's wages. So my mother was determined that all of her kids would learn to play a musical instrument.
I started learning the piano from Mme Naina, who lives further down on la rue Dauphine. My mum got our first piano was from a Mr Rosette, who lived on la rue l'Arsenal. He was an usher at the Royal College of Port-Louis.
I took the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music exams and failed. Turns out Mme Naina was not that familiar with the syllabus, so on to the next teacher; Mme Bax, who was the music teacher at my mum's school; Muslims Girls College, in Mauritius.
I think it was Mme Bax who then prodded us to get a better piano. We got our next piano from Mme Bax's son in Curepipe (?). When Mme Bax stopped being the music teacher at Muslim Girls, I moved on to Mr Cyril Joseph, who played in the police band and also had a choir. A few years later, I wanted to learn the violin, and we found a teacher, Mme Jamet in Curepipe. For my first violin exam, Mr Cyril Joseph could not come to accompany me on the piano, so we asked Mr Olivier, who gracefully volunteered. He was the music teacher at RCPL.
While growing up, I also used to visit Yip Tong, a Piano shop, to admire the gleaming new pianos.
The piano we bought from Mr Bax was eventually donated by my mum (Aissa Gareeboo) to l'Atelier Mo'zar in Roche Bois.
