Thoughts of a minibus traveller

 The 14th conversation about domestic violence in Guyana explored the lessons learned from the Guyana Women's Health and Life Experiences Survey (2018) (GWHLES) The conversation was held on 28 October, 2021 and it was led by Carlotta Boodie-Walcott and facilitated by Vidyaratha Kissoon. The survey The Guyana Women’s Health and Life Experiences Survey examines the nature and prevalence of violence against women and girls in Guyana (particularly intimate-partner violence). The conclusions of the survey include (quoting from the report) :- 55% of the women surveyed who had ever had a male partner have experienced some form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime The global average is 1 in 3.  38% of the survey respondents experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Only half of those who have experienced IPV have ever sought help. Barriers to help seeking include  lack of knowledge of available help being blamed or stigmatized by their situation becoming known...

  Diwali evening just before sun go down and the flowers close up. I go to pick one of the ixora from the bush I had not planted and I see three lilies blooming and one or two dropping where none were expected nestled under the bush. Beautiful peach pumpkin colour with yellow inside and I go back in my mind to check if these were ever there. Feeling a bit scared as I also realise that I should have seen these earlier that maybe my mind is now so all over the place looking in past and future and uncertain present that I am not noticing nice things around. I pass this spot every day and never noticed them .. Wondering if it is wild, or brought with flood waters but then the flood never really reached this part.  Birds don't really pass lily bulbs, thinking of the yowri and so who come to fight with the cats some nights and wondering if maybe they passed it here. Grateful for things blooming in the yard as I know that my hands must not touch them or they will not bloom or die. ...

  Scrolling Facebook timeline and then get into discussion about how another public event had Christian prayers only. Swami Aksharananda wrote a letter about thi s event. and invoking the history of how Christianity is unofficially Guyana's religion no matter how much people try hard to do the 'prayers of major religions and so on' at official events. I should be doing nice productive things instead of worrying about doing God in the divided country. I go listen to hear the MC did announce that the young man would reciting a Universal Prayer. I wonder if Swami has been wrong. And I listen and I hear Tagore's words coming through with the Heavenly Father and Prayers for the President (of all people, what happen to the teachers and students and so on?) and then a nice Amen at the end. And prayer being said during the period of Navratra when many Hindus were worshiping the Divine as Mother. Universal Prayer written no doubt by someone whose religious view of the Universe i...

 "Aye , aye .. come come .. see what we building..." the man calls me. I am walking in a kind of fuzz and not feeling like I could carry on a small talk conversation. Man calls me into the place which used to sell food. There is construction work going on, has been going on for awhile. Glass cases still there.  "Look, we aint doing food, we doing these things to sell.. pepper sauce, chips..." . Man is full of energy "You aint ever had this.. like pringles.. " He opens a plastic bag with cassava chips. The last molar had broken so the dentist said don't chew rough things. I was craving things to crunch and had been holding back from running down to the supermarket to pick up crunch things. Back in the day I didn't care when the mood caught me.. I bought and binged. The women who makes my favourite plantain chips had not come for two weeks. Nothing else compared. The thing with plantain chips though is that nothing like a pack which lil hard and not ...

Book club 3am, I can't sleep. I get up, collect the laptop, bring to the bed under the net. I open the PDF of the book. I want to sleep but I am glad that I can finish reading the book,  not only because the book is a kind of page turner but because well is book club that day and I want to finish the book. I remember reading a Kafka's Metamorphosis the night before First book club meeting in 2005 and thinking what the hell , this is like school.. hustling up to finish assignment the day before it is due. Reading is a wonderful solitary activity. Reading in community has this other dynamic of sustaining the joy in the encouragement and sharing.   Pandemic The pandemic has not stopped the reading in community. Thanks to the Internet, we can set some goals and then meet to talk about the book and the things in the book, or not to talk about the book at all and talk about other things - sex, politics, mental health, more sex, politics, environment, writing, films, other boo...

Navratri A clear night one Navratri. Beautiful satsangh in a beautiful mandir.  Mandir created as so many others in Guyana out of community desire for sacred space. Our Hindu ancestors came and land was set aside and made holy. Navratri celebrations are popular.  We sang that night in the Ramayana Gole, like the ancestors.  Young pandit, young people seem to be leading things. The blessing in connection, not so much to Shakti, the Divine Feminine energy, but to the ancestors who sustained belief in that Energy. Come out at the back of the mandir to look at the sky. See the smouldering pile.  Styrofoam boxes.. slowly burning.. huge pile.. plastic containers also burning. Wish I could say something. I don't know the people though. Host, guest relationship. Similar issues around as the generosity of the mandir hosts , the new technology of the disposable 'sanitary' , the noise, the murtis out of plastic, means around the world that Hindu festivals now create environment...

  Dear PAIN, I embrace you to let you go.  I felt you coming and was worried as you appeared in the sides of my waist and I thought of kidney stones and prostate issues and wondered why the pain was there not going away no matter how much I breathed and stretched.  I did not think of the triggers of squabbles with the patient, the brief sad exchange with the loved one , the work thing.. the loss of the last tooth to crunch on.. the transformer which keeps blowing.. the other things ..  But I was thinking of those things and in thinking of those things you creeped up slowly, crowded from waist to back to shoulders.. The interview and then the offer of the job and saying yes when thinking 'are you sure you want this janjhat' and not feeling the excitement which comes with possibility but dreading all the things which could go wrong.. and so PAIN  you flowed all over.. head to shoulders.. both shoulders.. each site in the pain a site associated with one of the tr...