Please Paint Me Caramel

Shakti Bliss

Description

A few years after the island of Mauritius gained independence from Great Britain, people and cultures collide and navigate life as Shakti, a little girl tries to make sense of the world and find her way.
Testimonials
Jackee Holder: Author, Coach, Trainer
“Thank you dear one for sharing this powerful story with us. I really appreciated the way in which Shakti tells her story. I was totally engaged. The chapters were so readable. I found myself swooning as she shared her mystical experiences in the temple. Shakti has this way of going deep without saying a lot. I noticed this in her collection of autobiographical poems “I: A Woman Speaking Up”. This is a powerful testimony of overcoming life’s adversity. Shakti explores taboo subjects such as colourism with honesty and grace. This is a story of moving from turbulence to triumph. The shortness of the chapters kept me wanting to keep turning the page. Shakti’s voice encourages the reader to reclaim their lives and to frame a new empowered story.”
Dr Janet Balabanovic: Counselling Psychologist
“Shakti bears her soul in this intimate collection of childhood memories. Please Paint Me Caramel delivers a beautifully evocative account of a childhood of relative privilege in Mauritius, a childhood which is richly suffused with vibrant and colourful memories of religious festivals and cultural traditions. Disturbingly, this is uneasily juxtaposed alongside a powerful undercurrent of emotional abuse disguised as love and protection. Suffocating demands and expectations are justified to protect and safeguard the future of a young girl who was born “too dark”, “with bad blood” and “in the wrong month”. The crushing weight of her family’s fears is keenly felt as the little girl grapples with her perceived defects and secretly and repeatedly prays to be painted caramel to secure her place in the world as a marriageable woman in a society that dictates only one path to a good and worthwhile life. A poignant reminder of the devastating impact of parental and culturally-bound conditions of worth on individual self-acceptance.”
Jane Yeadon, Author, Scotland
“This is an important book written from the heart- breakingly honest viewpoint of a child bewildered and marked by tradition and her family's adherence to it. Care, compassion and humour are the colours Shakti brings to her pages. She has brought the characters, traditions, and the emotions of her Mauritian childhood brilliantly to life.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Relationships
• Biography
• Relationship
• Despair
• Autobiography
• Love
• Life
• Tradition

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 04 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665591430
• Langue: English

Extrait

Please Paint Me Caramel
Shakti Bliss


AuthorHouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK) UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2023 Shakti Bliss. All rights reserved.
© 2023 Front cover artwork by Shakti Bliss
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 07/04/2023
 
ISBN: 978-1-6655-9142-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-9143-0 (e)
 
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
PART 1
Chapter 1It Is All Planned
Chapter 2Is It A Good Time?
Chapter 3Dépéché, Dépéché, Hurry Up
Chapter 4Ready Or Not
Chapter 5What Is This?
Chapter 6Oh Dear!
PART 2
Chapter 7Good Omens And Bad Omens
Chapter 8What’s In A Name?
Chapter 9Shakti Offers You Her First Smile
PART 3
Chapter 10Everything Must Match
Chapter 11Princess Francès: Nanny Extraordinaire
Chapter 12Social Status And Hierarchies
Chapter 13Keep Her In Pastel Colours And Out Of The Sun
Chapter 14Gracious Lydie And Queen Victoria
Chapter 15Père Laval
Chapter 16Paradise In Sainte Croix
PART 4
Chapter 17Detox À La Mauricienne
Chapter 18Crossing India In A Day: The Feat Of Lord Rama
Chapter 19Deepavali At La Rue Monsieur
Chapter 20Goddess Of Beauty: Please Help Me
Chapter 21Quarante Heures in Bel Air
Chapter 22The Saint Sacristi
Chapter 23The Worthless One
Chapter 24My First Almost Marriage Proposal
PART 5
Chapter 25Grandpère: A Man Of Few Words And Much Rum
Chapter 26Family History Comes In Different Forms
Chapter 27Forced Exile
Chapter 28The Dance Of People, Fruits And Vegetables
Chapter 29Jean: The Chagos Prince Of Tides
PART 6
Chapter 30Tifi: Glorious Queen Of Hearts
Chapter 31The Two Matriarchs
Chapter 32In The Name Of Beauty
Chapter 33Saturday Morning Cleaning
Chapter 34Respect and The Fisherman’s Catch
Chapter 35The Grand Tour Of The Illois Community
PART 7
Chapter 36Praised Be The Goddess
Chapter 37Fire Walking At The Kali Temple
Chapter 38Even Hindu Deities Are Fair
Chapter 39Yellow is the colour. Bliss is the way
Chapter 40The Gift Of My Heart
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MORE PLEASE PAINT ME …
WHO IS SHAKTI?
OTHER NON-FICTION FROM SHAKTI
UPCOMING BOOK: SUNDARI’S FOOTS TEPS

 
 
 
NOTE TO MY READERS
Dear reader,
This book is based on true events and people.
Really!
Above all, it is a love letter to the people I adore and the island I cherish.
It is a story about belonging and about longing to belong.
It is a story about joy and heartache.
It is my story.
PROLOGUE
“You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then Heaven; and that Heaven was copied after Mauritius”
(Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897)
This is where I was born.
This is where I grew up.
This is where I prayed and pleaded “Please Paint Me Caramel”. This is where many rituals of beauty and good fortune were thrust upon me. This is where I basked in tradition and love. This is where I fell into the grips of despair.
That’s how…
PART 1
CHAPTER ONE
It Is All Planned
“She was not born that way”, Grandma used to tell strangers. She has long stopped doing so. Now she pretends that there is nothing wrong with Mami. No one dares to contradict her.
Like a good wife Mami dutifully fell pregnant almost as soon as she was married. She did not tell anyone that her doctor had strongly advised her against it. She wanted a baby.
As soon as her wedding night was over, she inserted the thermometer into her every day. She no longer risked tampering with her status as a virgin. Her big sister Padma had explained to her that this was a good way of determining if her body was fertile or not. She was ready to conceive. She did not trust nature to do its work; not for her any haphazard occurring. She had a plan. She always had a plan. Padma had already promptly produced a son with the help of a thermometer. A daughter followed a year later with the help of the same thermometer. A son, then a daughter: That was the correct way. She too would have her son. Her beautiful fair son.
The astute daily monitoring of her body temperature, every morning, every early evening, facilitated a prompt fertilisation. Her second biggest dream in life was on course. It was now time to finalise the planning of her son’s life, from the day of his expected birth at the end of September. She had thought about the details for years; long before she was married or even had any prospect of being so. Her mother often thought that would never happen. Yet, the old lady kept on praying in the temples, churches and shrines across the island for her youngest daughter. Mami, on the other hand, never gave up hope, no matter what others said about her behind her back or to her face; no matter how they looked at her.
She had practised the colourful embroidery to be on the baby’s white trousseau , the type of nanny, the kindergarten, the Roman Catholic schooling for the primary cycle, the top secondary school of the island, the university and then the career: doctor or lawyer of course. Roman catholic primary schools were the best. The nuns were well known for being strict and disciplined. Only the top two professions of the community would be fit for her son. She had decided it all.
Daddy, her husband, might have liked a daughter. She did not ask. He did not say.
19 th July, she is found in a puddle of blood.
CHAPTER TWO
Is It A Good Time?
Grandma’s two thick gold bangles jangle on her right wrist as she pulls the folds of her dark brown saree more tightly across her bosom and flips it over her left shoulder. There are no bright colours for her anymore; not for the past twenty years since she became a widow at thirty-three years old.
Her name is Sundari. It means beauty in Sanskrit, the sacred language of India. But no one calls her by her name except her only living big brother. She is called Madame Chetty by most people or Aka by her Tamil connections. Aka is a sign of respect and means big sister in Tamil. She is not one for closer friendships. Some people call her Tantine ; this means aunty in creole, our local language. Her nephews and nieces call her Ma Tante , the French polite version. Her family is from Pondicherry, the French part of the Tamil community in India. They are very different from the rest of the Tamils in Mauritius or even the rest of South India. They are very French. Even their food is a bit different. They use red wine in their cooking unlike the rest of the Tamil families.
With a sweep of the back of her hand, she sends the beads of perspiration descending along her cheekbone, flying past her right ear. She smoothens the white bun settling on the nape of her neck. Coconut oil has long banished flyaway strands.
At 5 ft 2, her roundness makes her a little on the plump side. Her gaze darts from the bed where Mami is crouching in pain to the big clock on the wall, then back at Mami. She frowns. The beads of sweat are back.
Ati. Ati month for a first baby to be born. Hmmm! Is this a good time of day at least? She cannot remember. She usually remembers such things. Now, she cannot remember.
A very religious Tamil, and a Hindu, Grandma is obsessed with the good times and bad times stipulated by the Tamil calendar and the priests at the temples. She also has her own version of numerology. Nothing escapes this schedule: no month, no day, no hour. There are good days, like Mondays and Fridays, and bad days like Tuesdays. There are also not so good months like Ati . There are also good times of the day and bad times of the day. Day or night is also significant to her.
There are twelve months in the Tamil calendar. All start from around the 15 th of the usual months. The new year starts in April. The months are called: Cittirai , Vaikaci , Ani , Ati , Avani , Purattaci , Aippasi , Karttikai , Markali , Tai , Maci and Pankun i. Of all, Ati is the least auspicious. There are no weddings or house moves during that month. She also says that it is not a good idea to buy a new car or anything important during that month. Nobody knows why. Nobody questions this. Nobody dares to go against tradition. It is just how it is.
Many things are just how it is in Mauritius. Perhaps this is because it is a cosmopolitan island. Tamils, Hindis, Chinese, Muslims, French and Creoles all live here. Tamils are Hindus from the South of India and Hindis are from the North part of India. There are a few Gujaratis, Telegus and Marathis here too. They are other types of Hindus. The Muslims were from the Northern part of India, before India got divided into two by the British: Pakistan and India. Creoles are the descendants of the slaves, who were brought to work in the sugar cane plantations from East Africa, mainly Zanzibar. All our ancestors came by boat three generations ago. Before that there