Mauritius is near the African continent, next to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It is a small island, about 60 km long and 40 km wide. It has a population of about 1.5 million. The interesting part of history is that the island did not have any original natives. This was a port in historical days for the sailors to take rest, eat dodos and capture the large tortoise for the journey ahead. This is how the dodos got extinct and the large tortoises got into the endangered list. Dodos thought that the humans were like other animals and would leave them alone after having their fill. How were they to know that we belong to that category of species that do not look too much into future and environmental balance?
Anyway as the time passed the island went from Dutch to French and finally to the British. Hence the country still has a vast French culture. French is also an official language. The French and British brought the Africans to work as slaves in the farms here. After the ban on slavery, the British brought workers from India and China. So finally the island ends up with a multi-cultural mix of the English, French, Indian, Chinese and Africans with Indians being the majority. All traditional Hindu festivals are celebrated in Mauritius. The best part is to find the aunties here still wearing sarees and the youngsters wearing the salwars. (My maid knows Hindi better than English )
As Mauritius is in the Southern hemisphere, it is winter right now. The nights are really cold and going up to 12C. The shops also close off pretty early. Almost all stores close off by 5:00 PM. The supermarket remains open till about 7:30. (That reminds me I have to go early to pick up things from the supermarket)
That is all for today’s gyan
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