Thoughts of a minibus traveller

I tasted Sharbateh Sekanjabin earlier this year.. I did not know the name then, all I know is that it had mint and cucumber in it and it was Persian/Iranian in origins. My mind was on it, as the place get more hot and I glimpsed a pack of mint leaves from Arya Food s in the supermarket cooler. A long time ago I had a mint plant in the yard but it dried up . It is good to know that people growing these locally. There are different recipes. The first time , I left the syrup and it burnt.. or carmelised and I did not realise. Here is what I ended up doing :- Ingredients 1/2 cup sugar (I use brown sugar, I guess people would use white sugar) 1/4 cup water a little more than half of a 1/4 cup vinegar (yeah I know.. next time I will probably use lime or lemon juice with grated rind) 1/2 of the pack of the mint leaves on sale (or one sprig or as much as you want) grated cucumber to 'garnish' - but I left some in the water in the fridge for a while because there i...

There was a woman who used to walk with huge Bible up and down Brickdam in the hot sun. Phenomenal energy - she used to be a teacher and apparently walked everywhere. One time she had asked me why I was more qualified than her to do the job I was doing and I could not really answer. I am thinking of all the mad people I know who have energy. Just as  how I decided that I prefer the body pains over the itching, I wonder what it would be like to dealing with a mental condition which fuels intense activity and has me running down the road over and over rather than one which results  in the unpredictable energy flows.  Mornings when I could get up and move quickly and get a whole set of things done, and then other days when it takes longer to eat an orange. I wonder if the diet is responsible. The sugar thing on my mind because a kind of hangover after binging on sugary stuff and then I think of the last time I woke up after a high energy night and was able to do the m...

Same story,  lady has $100 bundles of sijan in the fish section of the Mon Repos market and I walk away and then I turn back and buy two bundles. It was the same time I did almost a year a go when I first cooked and  wrote about finding resilience in cooking and eating this for the first time . There is something about the cycle of things in writing, not so much as lunacy in doing the same thing over and over, but also in sometimes going back to do things which make you feel good. I had forgotten of course that I had written about cooking the sijan curry. I had to laugh that the reason I am writing this blog is almost the same as writing the last time - the need to be creative with cooking something which I do not cook often and then seeing the finished product and thinking I could write about it because saijan is supposed to be healthy. I had actually cooked saijan leaf bhaji long before I had cooked the saijan, but haven't made it recently as I am not in contact w...

I jump out of the bus with plenty other passengers near the Botanical Gardens and I realise that I still had the money in my hand. Some notes of the first steel band playing. Clouds provide a nice eclipse of the sun so 4pm it is cool. Gardens look nice and clean but some Guyanese can't make it to the rubbish bins. A former work colleague has her stand set up. She is a Jehovah Witness and preaches at the Gardens. Her grandson is one of the bands and she said that last year, the crowd seemed larger. The steel bands are around the bandstand. I ask her if she is not coming in and she laughs and says "I am doing Jehovah work while enjoying the steel pan music" I sit at the edge of the manatee pond. The music is kind of faint and there are some children talking excitedly because they see the manatees. I have not seen the manatees in years and feel foolish that I could not find anything to feed them, though I think we are not supposed to feed them. Imagine that there co...

by Vidyaratha Kissoon A man at the vigil said he asked a teacher what she would do if she saw a child being sexually harassed (his word). He said the teacher responded that it is not her business. The law is different now, and teachers are mandated to report and many teachers do report. There are probably a few who do not want to get involved in child protection. On the evening of Friday 24 September, 2015 , ChildLink, an NGO in Guyana, organised a vigil to remember the survivors of sexual abuse and those who are suffering in silence.  Earlier in the week, in Berbice, there was a rally to break the silence on child sexual abuse. Another man at the vigil talked about the community he had visited. There were complaints of children being sold to rich men. The community members who intervened were told ‘mind your own business’ – a deep cultural trend much like what the teacher must have invoked,  when dealing with child sexual abuse and oth...

Almost a year ago I wrote about the relief in the sweet orange flavoured tea and thinking now of gratitude to keep moving. Gratitude for the orange and the tea and the milk and the sugar and the hot water and the enjoyment which comes with the absence of guilt and the absence from thinking that I should not be drinking sugary tea but finding healthy ways to cope. Gratitude , even as it was a sad occasion - a wake house, for the taan singing, and singing Ramayana - sitting on the ground with nuff breeze blowing, almost outdoors, and knowing that is how sorrow and joy work, but jal, drum , harmonium managing to push some vibes and sitting in a place not far from where others used to sit and sing in the same way.. keeping the connections (This is an example of taan singing ) Gratitude for the clouds lifting a bit and remembering the work which was recently done which had some good comments - some things which were done on a whim, random and forgetting the feedback as I...

2005 Picture, Taran Rampersad - https://flic.kr/p/4HTma Software Freedom Day  is a day identified to celebrate Free and Open Source Software.   Guyana has been celebrating since 2004, when the first event was held at NCERD, Ministry of Education with installations of Linux and demonstrations of various tools. There have been events of different intensity every year since then - in Berbice (University of Guyana Berbice Campus and New Amsterdam Technical Institute) and sometimes in Georgetown. In 2005, the event was held at the YWCA (Thanks Taran for the blog). There were two tracks - the auditorium had presentations and the lab  had the demonstrations and installations. In 2015, the event was held at the Herdmanston Lodge on Saturday 19 September, 2015 courtesy of Brainstreet. There were a series of presentations. 2005 - Presentation at YWCA, Brickdam on SFD Donielle Dundas (Apologies for poor quality of image) Donielle Dun...

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley apparently had an interesting life which could have been the stuff of fiction. "F rankenestein: or the Modern Prometheus " is apparently her most known work - written when she was 19 years old. She was fascinated by imagination and her preface makes reference to the Hindu legend of the world being held by an elephant which stands on a tortoise.  She says about Invention, (her story? )  "Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself. […] Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it."  Early science fiction where Frankenstein creates a well 'creature' who murders and rationalises the murders in very credible ways and an example...

by award winning heritage blogger Vidyaratha Kissoon   The man and I noticed the water in the drains which had been weeded. We talk.. there shouldn’t be water in the drains, there has been no rain. The man is an APNU supporter and his grumbles about many things have fallen on deaf ears. There is a futility about high water in dry weather in drains, in the city and in the outlying areas. Outside Bourda Market, 24 hours after a sporadic shower, there is still a nasty puddle in front the City Constabulary office. A lot of focus is on bringing down the old building and getting rid of the documents which might have had value. No one is certain if the drains near Bourda will be blocked by prosperity as has happened in other places. Something about the cleaning, important, but top top.  Like the rumblings of change. People say give time for the change and it is easy to believe that things might have changed on the surface.  Rain fell heavily after day...

Beep. You have a missed call from a number. Heart jumps. Number looks familiar. I never expected to see the number again on the phone. I had deleted it. So it might not be the number. I text.. this is Vidya, email me if it is me. Text comes back. Beep.. 'Just want to say hi'. I offer to call. It has been 2 and a half years since the last conversation and the ending. We talk. I love hearing your voice now as I always did. I can't be cynical. It is midnight. Barriers are down.  I confess my surprise.. especially since it was six  years since we had spent a great time together before you pushed me away. I question and you talk.. I like that. It is good to hear your news. There are things I want to ask but you have to go.  You ask about me and I refuse to be polite. Mental health issues. You don't want to hear about those and I am not going to tell you nice things. Yeah, I am more than my mental health issues..  I sense the distance again in the voice and ...

No matter how slow the movements are, how difficult it is to get the simple things done and how the mind cannot push boundaries to get tasks done.. the moon shifts or the nutrition changes or something.. and with the clouds hovering in the background... the word gratitude comes up .. Gratitude for the turpentine mango which fell from the tree.. and for the  birds, bats and marabuntas that left it for me..gratitude for the lil greenish soursop that still taste nice when it blend up with water.. Gratitude for the bird nesting again in the same nest as the other bird because I don't think the same bird could be laying eggs so quickly or maybe the bird feels comfortable.. means that the house must have some nice vibes in it for the birds (and lizards and ants which the lizards no longer eat, and the mosquitoes.. all living in harmony) Gratitude for the bananas, and the banana icecream at the bottom of the sundae from Demico which should not have been eaten, but it is probabl...

A lot of mistakes being made. Universe has a way of throwing triggers . There is need for concentration to organise work. There is need for creativity to present some work. Some mistakes can be covered up. Other's cannot be covered up. The place is humid and stifling and the feeling of heaviness is made worse by the mind not wanting the body to move except urgency like reaching for the cinnamon and mint tea with honey in the hope that the honey is better than sugar. Humidity is good though since the bed is not comfortable and lying still is not an option. Trying ginger as well to help. Doing the stretches so that the body could feel lighter even if the mind does not but then the body does not move on its own really and the stretches must be felt which is a mind thing again. But the mind stills the body in so many ways. The creativity is needed in the work, and also in solving so many of the problems around and problem solving requires concentration and not battling with t...

I aint vote so I doan really bodder too much wid how de Opposition getting on wid de Government but since I pay taxes I does have to mek sure dat dem dat I paying does be wuking. So recently I hear dat David sending Moses fuh talk wid de slap and strip bheri party and dat de party say no way not Moses and dat Moses in he response say among odder tings dat 'losers cannot be choosers' and dat wedder dey like it or not, is he Moses dat will have to boil cou cou wid bheri women and men. It cyan be easy. But now elections done, and de VAT still paying, while I have no intention of unity wid bheri's slappers and strippers,  dere is something about how David and Moses playing chess wid dis Unity ting because underlying de whole 'National Unity' is someting about how black people and coolie people is supposed to unite. And so is entertainment every time Moses throw a shot at he former comrades, and dey shot back and back and forth it go.. but dat is nice fuh some...

by award-winning heritage blogger Vidyaratha Kissoon  “Do you want any help with your work?” the woman asked as she sat down at the table next to me in the cafe which was empty except for the two of us. I laughed and said, ‘No’ and she said, “Buy a water fuh meh nuh.” She had come in breezily, Good Afternoon to everyone. Smile on the face. The water was free so I bought something else for her with exact change (in case she took the money to BUY DRUGS). She asked me what work I did and I tried to explain but then I did not bother and mumbled about doing whatever I could get. She smiled and said, ‘that is good’. A woman had damaged her property which she was using to set up space to sell. “I am feeling bad today” . We talk. She has a kind of dreamy way of speaking. We move to the music. She with her pine tart and water and me in front of the laptop trying to focus on the work which I had hoped to finish and which was not making sense. ...

Winslow Craig sculpture (Apologies - Galvanised Man I think) Strange week. Facing people I would rather not face but feeling relieved that while there is some distaste, there is no anger and the feelings quickly pass and the work gets done. A lot of things happening. Feeling as though the body is adapting. Body feels in the adapting that is is constricting and tightening up.  Two attempts at yoga fail as the pain is too much.  People are happy.   There is something light and free about the man in the picture and I remember when I used to feel that way. Body constricting is one thing. The heat/humidity and the dust and the mosquitoes and the ants running all over. There is fatigue in the conditioning to survive. There are interesting projects. There are rapid mind and emotion swaps.  The joy of the loved one saying amazing things and the feeling that there was nothing wrong with the loved one mixed with the despair and sadness of not being able to say an...

“Shake meh hand nuh” the man said gruffly and I shook his hand thinking well, times change. The man who had not wanted me in his workplace when he was propping up the PPP now wants me to shake his hand and I think well my hand has been in the gutters many times so the hand really is nothing. and then writing this I imagine, what an awful thing to think about somebody after Social Cohesion Roundtable . I could have clasped my hands in Namaste and explained that since my hands have been in filthy places that it would not do him good but then I think of the man who I had offended many times who had reached out his hand to me once and I had taken it with relief. Another man had asked me if I was going to the seven curry thing. The Ministry of Social Cohesion (part of the Ministry of the Presidency) has a poster with a picture of seven curry in the leaf. Seven curry, loved by many, is a very Guyanese – well coolie Guyanese thing. In other parts of the world, peopl...