Study group chez Gajack

When I was in RCPL (I think in lower six), we had a Sunday study group at our friend's place - Osman Rajack - in Trou Fanfaron.  We would review mostly Maths and Physics, and I think other than Osman, we had A3 (Atifur Ayoob Abdool), Bagal (Anwar Auckburally) and maybe some others, but I don't remember.  We sometimes had Osman's brothers pop in, and also Ti Taras (Mamade don't_ remember_his_last_name).

However, the star of the occasion was the rotis that Osman's mum used to make for us, and the 'café chamarel' his dad made.  Those rotis were out of this world.  Morning rotis were with curry pomme de terre in masala and chutney pomme d'amour and chatini cotomili. Dinner rotis were stuffed with giromon touffe and brede songe and all kinds of other good stuff, like zachard legumes.  One or two of those and you were in food coma nirvana !

Working From Home and COVID-19

Advice/Quotes for this period

If you are working from home, you need to create time to take care of yourself every day.  It can be a walk around the block, some meditation, sitting in the garden, anything that takes you away from work and home life.  Start small and build on it.

Every hand that we don't shake must become a phone call we place.
Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern.
Every inch and every foot that we physically place between ourselves and another, must become a thought as to how we might be of help to that other, should the need arise.

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky

Keep a schedule, still get dressed and shower, try to eat as you would in the office, and generally remember to act like you are at work. Otherwise you show up with pj's on, no makeup, hair like a whirlwind, and never sleep.

S Chavez

During Video Conferences, go around the 'room' by last name and give everyone an opportunity to speak.

G. Hui

One thing I do (even when at the office) is declaring out loud: "I'm Done Work for the Day!". It flips a switch in your mind to shift form work mode to home mode. This is more important when your work and home is the same place. Some of us have even started posting this in our team slack channels to foster a greater sense of community.

C Onuczko

Take care of your mental health during this time. And a big part of this is taking time to step away from your computer to refocus yourself physically and mentally.  Staring at your screen for 8+ hours a day without moving is not good - so please be sure you walk away for a few moments during the day.

A Hobbs

If you get anxious and depressed because you cannot go out, look for that list of tasks you have been procrastinating, and every time you feel like you need to go out, pick one task and do it ! :-)

Links:

10 Self-care rituals during the Pandemic

How to beat burnout

Lots of great tips about how to stay focused and productive when working from home
Video conference etiquette
Coping with Stress During the Covid19 Outbreak
How-to-work-from-home-without-losing-your-mind
How-to-host-a-virtual-coffee-fika
CDC COVID-19 site
Working from home with your partner

I can still taste the candy!

I recently came across this great story:

There was an old man who was admitted to the hospital.
A young man visited him every day, and sat with him for more than one hour.
He helped him eat his food, and take his shower.
Then he took him walking in the garden of the hospital.
After that he brought him back to his room and helped him to lie down.
He then left after making sure the old man was well.

One day the nurse entered his room, to give him medicine and inspect his condition, and said to him:

"May the Lord be always gracious to your kind and caring son. Every day he visits you and shows great care."

He looked at her and closed his eyes and said to her:

"I wish it was one of my children. This is an orphan from the neighborhood where we live. I met him one day, crying at the door of a Masjid, after his father died. I comforted him and bought for him candy. I neither saw him nor talked to him for a very long time.

When he grew up and came to discover where my wife and I were living. He was visiting us every day to inspect our conditions. When I later fell sick, he took my old wife to his home. He then comes to the hospital to see my treatment everyday. One day I asked him: My son why do you have to deal with us and care about us?

He simply smiled and said: I can still taste the candy."

Should you board your windows before the Hurricane ?

Boarding your widows before the arrival of a Hurricane is one question that has eluded definitive answers from "the Google".

The basic idea is that your windows may not survive the hurricane, so it may be prudent to 'board them up' usually using plywood, but if you cannot get those, you can use fencing panels (plywood usually sells out just before hurricanes).

Your windows could be damaged in 2 ways:

• Flying debris fly through your window 
• Window cracks and smashes just because of wind strength

You window may also 'let water through' when you have rain and strong winds.

Many newer houses have windows that are storm rated to some extent.  But that does not necessarily mean they won't get damaged.  For some of the "double glazed windows with gas inside", the gas inside of them can leak out, so they lose any kind of pressure.

Boarding with plywood is also no guarantee that your window will survive.  All depends on the force with which the flying debris hits it.  Boarding with metal storm shutters are safer, but usually need to be ordered well in advance.

As I stated above, "The Google" does not know the answer to this question. 

My strategy has been to:

• Make sure I have enough plywood, tools and supplies to board my windows
• Keep an eye on what the neighbors are doing
• If my gut tells me I need to board, then I do

I have been in Florida since 2005 and have not boarded my windows yet, and not had any damage.

Hajj 2018

Hajj

My wife and I went to the Hajj pilgrimage in 2018. It was definitely a once in a lifetime trip. We made the decision to go at fairly short notice, so there was not much in terms of extensive preparations, but it all went well.

There are many articles on how best to prepare for the Hajj, and I referred to them for our preparations.

One item we had difficulty finding was antiperspirant with no fragrance, because for part of the pilgrimage, the wearing of perfume is not permitted. We eventually got some from a pharmacy in Medina. So if you get stuck like us and were not able to get some from your home country, you could get it in Saudi Arabia and a pharmacy may be a good bet.  The one we got was from Louis Widmer :

Mette lor Dum !

"Mette lor Dum !" is an expression in Kréol Morisiyen to refer to a specific stage in the cooking of a Biriani (typically at a wedding feast - in the large 'Degs') in Mauritius. The Indian equivalent (specifically Hyderabadi) is to dum cooking.

See my earlier post for pictures of Degs and Biriyani at a Mauritian wedding.

Dampokhtak
Asaf-ud-Daula

Mauritian Creole

I am fascinated by many of the words in Mauritian Creole... what they mean and how they came about.

Here are some that I love:

Fiél
Fiél = moxie (="force of character, determination, or nerve.")

Pingét
Adjective applied generally to an 'impertinent' girl

Ti Piment
Adjective applied generally to a 'sharp-tongued' girl


Are there any words you are fascinated with ?

Coca Cola - Ramadan 2018

My first Piano teacher

Just found out from my mum that my first Piano teacher was Ms Agatha Macascin (Macaskin ?), who lived on Dauphine st near the Lallmamodes. We bought our first piano from Ms Rosette at the top of la rue L'Arsenal and then later sold it to Mr Ardil Ghanty for Rs400. I failed my first piano exams, so Mme Bach became my second piano teacher. We bought Mme Bach's son's piano.

Origins of my Violin - Part 3 and Conclusion !

I found the names of the sisters my mum bought my violin from; Rita and Augustine Galdemar! Got the names from my buddy Alain D'Espaignet - aka "Billy the Kid" ! I did a search of the names and came across two documents :

Relevés du cimetière de Port-Louis Ouest

Reference to "LE PETIT CHOSE, pseud. (Ange Galdemar) — Lettres à ma cousine. Mercantile Record Cy. 30p." in EARLY IMPRINTS AND PRIVATE PUBLICATIONS

Fruits of Mauritius - Watouk

I recently heard about an obscure fruit from Mauritius called Watouk. After asking for help, I got this from Bashdev: "Watouk also known as clidemia hirta produces berries. Called locally as fraise lolou"

An RCPL74 friend found a paper about the plant. I believe you get it around Plaine Champaigne - where we get goyaves de Chine.

Origins of my Violin - Part Deux

I wrote a blog post a while ago about this and just got some new information. It's possible that the 2 sisters we bought my violin from raised Frances Tursan D'Espaignet, who became a Maths teacher at St Joseph college in Mauritius. One of the sisters taught piano, and the other taught violin. Frances D'Espaignet was an orphan raised by his 2 aunts. Frances D'Espaignet eventually built a house and lived on La Rue Blondeau in Rose-Hill.

Hurricane Prep - Mauritius v/s US - post Irma

Hurricane Irma is now gone. I now have some time to reflect on the Hurricane (aka Cyclone) experience in the US compared to Mauritius.

Main differences :

Hurricane prep. In Mauritius, Hurricane prep does not include buying a weather radio (because most households have radios already), or bottled water (because most houses have a water tank above the house; or 'basins' around the house, and/or we fill up all available large containers with water). In the US, the run on bottled water and gas always surprises me. I am not sure why folks don't just fill up their large pots and pans with water (do people not have large pots and pans anymore ?). The run on gas is understandable because in the US we have the option to evacuate and drive out of the path of the hurricane. No such option in Mauritius.

Hurricane prep in Mauritius also does not generally include 'boarding up' your house. Mostly because the old wooden colonial houses have 'built-in' shutters already - you just have to close them. New houses are made of reinforced concrete with strong windows (I don't think we have shutters on the concrete houses). In the US, we typically have a run on plywood that we cut to board up our windows.

A big part of hurricane prep in Mauritius involves taking down your outdoor TV antenna and is, unfortunately, one of the major causes of fatalities - folks getting electrocuted while on their roofs.

US weather services do not use a warning class 1-4 like in Mauritius. Makes sense since the US and in this case, Florida is so much bigger than Mauritius (~ 83x). Otherwise, they would need to issue a different 'Warning class' for each location. Which they 'kind of' do - they issue a Hurricane Watch, then a warning when it gets more serious. At least that's what I think they do - the definitions for the terms are on the NOAA site.

US weather services tend to use a 'cone' which can be confusing as some people think it represents the area expected to experience the worst winds, when if fact it represents projected trajectory of center of hurricane (I might not be exactly right here, so if someone knows better, please let me know).

Communicating with friends and relatives in the aftermath of the hurricane is very different. In Mauritius, the phone service is always down at some point during a hurricane hit, but somehow everyone eventually knows what happened to you. The general assumption is you fared the same as them, since the place is relatively small, and exceptional damage is transmitted rapidly by word of mouth. In the US, these days social media is the main method. I found Facebook updates the most efficient. Single post - most friends. Then Whatsapp for relatives.

Another difference in the aftermath is in Florida, a lot of folks who don't have power just move to a hotel. No such behavior has so far been observed in Mauritius.

I think that covers the differences.

The things that are the same are:

run on batteries before the hurricane
trimming of trees ideally well before hurricanes
glued to the TV weather services for updates in the lead-up and during
power loss at some point during
waiting for power to be restored and dealing with no power
no school (Yippie ! :-) )
cleanup and repairs (Booohoooohoooo :-()

Success and Wealth

I overheard someone talking about this topic, and it triggered a flood of thoughts in my mind. Is wealth the same as success? If you are poor, does that mean you have failed at life? I think the answer to both questions is NO! Here is a graph of those metrics:

What the graph aims to show is that Wealth and success are orthogonal- i.e. they are statistically independent. That is my opinion/guess. One of the difficulties with this topic is that while it can be argued that wealth can be objectively measured (ignoring issues like the value of your health), success is probably a very subjective measure. The definitions I came across were "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose" and/or "the attainment of popularity or profit". The talk I overheard was a religious one, and the argument was that success is practicing the virtues, while failure is wallowing in the vices. Even if you are not religious though, it is worth pausing to think about what you are trying to achieve with your life. Is it wealth? Or Success? (or Happiness or Health .... or....)

Wedding dinner - Bride's side

Mauritius wedding trip - Part 4

This one was similar to the Wedding dinner on the boy's side, except that the order of arrival was reversed. This time (since we were on the girl's side), we arrived 'mid-way' through the proceedings, and tried to make a fanfare. The dinner was held at Rabita Hall.

Again, there was a podium where the bride and groom sat, and guests would go up and chat with them, and near the end of the dinner, would take pictures with them.

Wedding dinner - Groom's side

Mauritius wedding trip - Part 3

A Mauritian Muslim wedding dinner is a unique experience. Hundreds of people invited to some of the largest halls on the Island, expecting to be fed the best beef biryani you can imagine, immediately without delay.

Because of the number of guests and the fact that everyone expects to be served as soon as they arrive; an enormous amount of food has to be cooked on premises, and has to be ready just around the time the guests arrive. There is also an army of servers who then deploy the food often in bucket brigade style.

The biryani is usually served with cucumber and carrot salad as well as a selection of 'zachards' (aka achard ... e.g. mango achard ). A fairly recent type of zachards is 'apple' zachards. However, for me, the unbeatable condiment to eat with a good biryani is zachards tambarin (tamarind achard). Mindblowing ! :-)

The wedding dinner on the boys' side, was held at the Port-Louis Gymkhana. We were welcome by the groom's relatives when we got there, and sat at a table and ate the delicious food. Desert was Halwa dal gram - not my favorite thing in the world.

The hall had a podium where the bride was seated, and guests would go up and talk to her.

As we were about done eating, the groom and his 'posse' turned up in a fanfare and he went up to the podium to sit next to his bride, while the posse sat down to eat.

After most people had dinner, each 'family' then takes turn to go up to the podium to congratulate the couple and take pictures with them.

At some point the wedding cake is cut, but I had fully entered food coma by then, so I cannot quite remember when that happened.

So there you have it. We stayed till the end, when the bride and groom left together in the 'carosse mariaze' (wedding car).

Nikah

Mauritius wedding trip - Part 2

We were in Mauritius for a wedding and this is a post on the actual religious wedding ceremony that took place on Saturday. The name for a Muslim wedding is 'Nikah'.

The Nikah was held at the Masjid La Rue Vellore aka Noor-E-Islam Masjid, and it was to take place just after the 'Asr prayers (mid-afternoon). As usual, it was hot. Thankfully, I was wearing some light Indian clothes, and so was Adam, our 6 year old. Rehana and Iman went to the back of the Masjid to the ladies side, and I loitered outside the Masjid with Adam, since he was not too keen on going it yet (or was it me who wanted to stay on the streets ? ... can't remember). Once the 'Asr prayers were over, we started to make our way inside the Masjid.

As the groom came to the Masjid, there were a few girls blocking the door. Part of Mauritian Muslim tradition (I believe) - Groom had to pay them off to let him out. He came prepared and had a bunch of envelopes with money.

The standard formula for the Muslim wedding is the groom and 2 'witnesses' from the bride's side have to be there, as well as the Imam (who conducts the proceedings - although it does not have to be an Imam). Everyone sits down on the carpet, and the Iman starts by saying some stuff (generally about how marriage is a good thing), and then piles into it. He announces to the gathering at large that we are here for the wedding of (bride's name) to (groom's name), then he talks to the bride's witnesses and asks them if the bride agrees to this union. If he hears a yes, he then asks the same question of the groom. Once he hears the 'yes', the marriage is done and he then asks for blessings for the happy couple. Everyone stands up and a line forms to hug the groom. That's usually my cue to go look for our shoes. We then loitered around inside the Masjid until most people have left, and when we leave, we each get a 'cake'. I think it is part of the Muslim tradition to have something sweet at the end of the wedding.

This is what happened at the guys' side. What happens at the girl's side ? I have no clue since I was not there. Adam and I walked to the back of the Masjid and waited, and waited, and waited. Fortunately there were a bunch of other husbands out there waiting for their other halves. I heard the delay was due to the groom could not put her shoes back on, since she was wearing the full western wedding dress. Two other ladies had to dive in there and find her feet. Hehehe - someone should have recorded that.

Once the bride came out, the 'wedding car' whisked her away with her new husband sitting in the back of the car.

Next event was the Dinner - boys side....

Mehendi

Mauritius wedding trip - Part 1

We are in Mauritius for a wedding and this is a post on the Mehendi ceremony that took place last night in the depths of 'camp Lascars' aka Plaine Verte - right by the football stadium 'Mamad Elahee'. The ceremony is named after the plant used for making 'henna' and is usually the first of a series of events that make up the traditional Mauritian Muslim wedding. Part of the ceremony is that the bride gets her hand and feet decorated with those henna patterns.

The ceremony/celebration took place in a hall next to the bride's place. My wife is related to the bride.

We got there just after 7pm, and there were a few folks there already (all from the bride's side) eating dinner. After greetings, we sat down and got our plates of food delivered. It was curried chicken with basmati rice with a cucumber salad and there was mango kutcha.

We had a few 'servers' with more food to pile onto your plate. The custom is they will try and keep filling your plate as you eat. If you refuse, they will ask:

Faire moi plaisir ...!

Rough translation would be:

I would be so happy if you would eat some more...

After everyone has had dinner, we then moved to the other end of the hall, where we had a stage meant for the bride (and groom ?) and chairs laid out to face them. While waiting for the bride, someone mentioned that they had brought a ravane. I was volunteered to sing, so decided to write something. With help from a team of people, we came up with two Segas for the occasion, and kept practicing. The idea was we were going to sing it before the bride-grooms' side came over. Then someone suggested we had to warm up the ravane - we went down to the kitchen and used the gas burner.

The grooms' side then arrived and brought with them lots of trays full of gifts - including the wedding dress, shoes, cosmetics, sweets, etc, etc...

After the groom's side settled into their seats, (without the groom - he does not get to attend the Mehendi), we then went up by the stage and performed our segas.

We then resumed the normal mehendi (performing a sega at a mehendi is definitely NOT part of the normal Mehendi).

A variety of finger food was then served to all the guests (samoosas, mini quiches, crab rangoons, banana tart, and of course the napolitaines). Food was followed by guava juice.

Then there were lots of photo sessions with the bride, the groom's side left with trays of gifts for the groom. More photo sessions with the bride, followed by freshly fried gateaux piments and tea.

A dominoes session started at the back of the hall, and I also saw someone come in with a soccer ball. By that time, it was 11pm and time to go. Adam had been running around with the rest of the kids and now wanted to go to the car.

On the future of work, and life

The current employment market in the US is not the best it's ever been. That would be stating the situation mildly. Although, thankfully, unemployment rates have come down from the over 10% rates just after the 2007 great recession, there is still a lot of underemployment (14.5% currently), and young people are still finding it hard to land a job. The worrying news is that things are likely to get worse. There are increasing reports that the economic situation is about to take a turn for the worse - mainly as a result of the fiscal floods of Quantitative Easings. Also, a lot more of current work is about to get automated by increasingly useful AI (Artificial Intelligence) computer systems. This raises the prospect of increasingly large percentages of the working age population finding it harder to find work in the near future. Are there new ways of life these days that does not require a 'steady job' ?

Honour

After my dad passed away, one of his friends said something to my mother, and this is still on my mind. He said "You know Aisha, Cassam was not a high achiever, but everything he did, he did it with honour" (that is the translation of my recollection of the 'Kreol Morisiyen' version).

I guess the reason why I still think about this is because there are moments in your life when your 'balance sheet' suddenly becomes clear. In the business world, this would be at the end of the financial year, when accounts are made public. In the life of presidents, it is at the end of their last term. In the life of most human beings, death is an occasion for others to reflect on your balance sheet.

And so it was with my Dad. He was not a 'high flyer', but all he did was with honour. I wondered if maybe we are also kinder to people who have passed away. Do we maybe not see their faults anymore... and if so, is that because we are sad they are gone ? I don't really know.

But I thought the idea that maybe it is more important to do something (anything) honourable, that it is be a 'high achiever'. Is there a parallel here with the idea of 'quality v/s qualtity' ?

Anyway, I would be interested in your comments/thoughts, etc ... if you are reading this :-)