À l’heure du tout à l’image et du buzz sans suite, «l’express» souhaite faire découvrir la plume de poètes, de chanteurs, d’écrivains et de tous ceux qui jettent leur âme sur le papier, et qui mettent en mots des réflexions profondes.

Yes, this was, this is, this will be

my lovely, tiny, attractive country

whose people for Divali enjoy ‘gateau patate’

while for Spring Festival we eat ‘gateau cravate’

We relish ‘gateau Marie’ on Assumption day

waiting for ‘Sevay’ on Eid to come on a tray.

When the Kanwar merges with the Cavadee

North India meets the South in all solemnity

East meets West, the soil knows no rest

with ploughing, tilling, sowing and harvest.

A bus trip from the North to the capital

gives an air of fancy-dress carnival

with the hindu in sari or dhoti wrapped,

the muslim’s bearded face and cap,

the creole dressed in western style,

the chinese unending talk and smile

Happily joined in this Fatherland

but not forgetting ancestors and their Motherland,

keeping cultures all, traditions all,

life goes on, once it was survival,

now pleasurable, more and more enjoyable,

as blow winds favourable

towards development, towards progress gradually

Bio

She has been writing for a long time and her latest book is entitled “The Last Pilgrimage”. A long-standing educator in Literature in English at both secondary and tertiary levels, she devotes her time to the promotion of literature, in all genres, and literature in all languages has always been her passion. Invited as a speaker at the “Jaipur Literature Festival 2024”, she read this poem on the first day, from her book entitled “Mauritius in Rhythms”