Mr Ulsi's Store
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MR ULSI'S. STORE ~~~~~ Selected publications by Brij V Lal Girmitiyas: The Origins of the Fiji Indians (1983) Politics in Fiji: Studies in Contemporary History (editor, 1986) Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Crisis (1988) As the Dust Settles: Impact and Implications of the Fiji Coups (editor, 1990) Broken Waves: A history of the Fiji Islands in the Twentieth Century (1992) Pacific Islands History: Journeys and Transformations (editor, 1992) Plantation Workers: Resistance and Accommodation (co-editor, 1993) Tides of History: the Pacific Islands in the 20th century (co-ediror, 1993) Bhut Len ki Katha: Totaram Sanadhya ka Fiji (co-author, 1994) Lines across the Sea: Colonial Inheritance and the Post-colonial Pacific (co-editor, 1995) Towards a United Future: Report of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission (co-author, 1996) A Vision for Change: AD Pate! and the Politics ofFiji (1997) Research Papers of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission, 2 vols (co-editor, 1997). Electoral Systems in Ethnically Divided Societies: Fiji Constitution Review (co-editor, 1997) Crossing the Kala Pani: A documentary history of Indian indenture in Fiji (editor, 1998) Another Way: The politics of constitutional reform in post-coup Fiji (1998) Across the Kala Pani: Indian Overseas Migration and Settlement (co-editor, 1998) Before the Storm: Elections and the Politics of Deve!opment in Fiji (editor, 2000) Chalo Jahaji: On a journey through indentute in Fiji (2000) The Pacific Islands: An encyclopedia (co-editor, 2000) Coup: Reflections on the political crisis in Fiji (co-editor, 2001) Pacific Lives, Pacific Places: Bursting Boundaries in Pacific History (co-editor, 2001) Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at http://epress.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Lal, Brij V., author. Title: Mr Tulsi’s store : a Fijian journey / Brij V. Lal. ISBN: 9781922144881 (paperback) 9781922144898 (ebook) Subjects: Lal, Brij V.--Childhood and youth. East Indians--Fiji--Social life and customs. East Indians--Fiji--Biography. Dewey Number: 996.11 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published by Pandanus Books, 2001 This edition © 2013 ANU E Press For Sam, Kamla and Rajendra and for Manju and Bahini Home is where one starts from. As we grow older The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense moment Isolated, with no before and after, But a lifetime burning in every moment And not the lifetime of one man only But of old srones that cannot be deciphered. T.S. Eliot, 'East Coker' Acknowledgements Most of the essays in this collection were conceived, written and revised in spare time, on the side, during weekends, late at night since advancing age and infirmity diminished my daily intake of the golden liquid, and on numerous sleepless plane journeys across a slumbering Pacific. lan Templeman, my publisher and himself a distinguished poet, encouraged me to embark on this project. Hank Nelson's close reading of several pieces improved them immeasurably, and conversations with Praveen Chandra, of Brisbane, revived memories of events and experiences I had nearly forgotten. Venket Naidu, a fellow Labasan, corrected my recollection of local details. Thank you to all of you and to Romola Templeman for her watercolour Mr Tulsi's Store, to Julie Stokes for her meticulous editing of the manuscript and to lan Templeman, Emily Brissenden and Duncan Beard at Pandanus Books for their craftsmanship and encouragement all along the way. Dhanyabad, Vinaka Vakalevu. My family, at first reluctant to support an effort that revealed so many private moments, rallied behind me as they have done so often, so selflessly. But I dedicate this book to my surviving brothers and sisters who were there when I started and who have, all along, cheered me on from the sidelines even as our careers and life paths took divergent turns. Their friendship and love mean more to me with each passing year. Brij V Lal Canberra VI Contents Preface ix Tabia 1 Bahraich 25 Mr Tulsi's Store 45 Labasa Secondary 59 From Labasa to Laucala Bay 81 The Other Side of Midnight 105 A Sojourn in Hawai'i 111 Sunrise on the Ganga 127 Ben 139 Submissions 153 On the Campaign Trail 169 Kismet 185 Fare Well, Fiji 207 Sources 209 Preface This collection ofessays and stories represents my attempt, from the vantage point of an impending half-century, to revisit a time and a place I have taken for granted or ignored, to reflect on an experience not recorded in written texts but which was, at the time, profoundly important in shaping the life of the post-war generation ofIndo-Fijian children: that is, the experience of growing up in a sugar cane village, poor, vulnerable and isolated; the expectations and hopes of a community struggling to escape the legacy of hopelessness and servitude following the end of indenture; the petty humiliations and deprivations they encountered along the way. The world that formed me is alien to my children. They find it hard to believe, for instance, that I was born in a thatched hut on my father's farm, delivered by an illiterate Indo-Fijian village midwife; that I grew up without electricity, running water or paved roads; that for us village people, often the only window to the outside world was a week old newspaper; that our generation's motto, a painful reminder of our IX Preface unpredictable and uncertain condition, was 'one step at a time'. This collection, then, is both a record and a reminder: a record of a world that has now almost vanished beyond recognition, and a reminder of the long journey we have travelled and the transformations we have undergone. In recording my experiences, I have privileged truth over accuracy, attempting to catch the thoughts and emotions rather than dry facts about village life. For obvious reasons, some names have had to be changed and some conversations imagined. I have tried to recall the past creatively, imaginatively, rendering factual, lived experience through the prism of semi-fiction. I call this kind of exercise 'faction' writing. It is the most satisfactory way I know of remembering a past unrecorded in the written texts. My journey may seem improbable to many: from the cane fields of Labasa to the capital of Australia, from peasant to professor just two generations after the end of indenture. It is improbable, I would agree, but not exceptional. Its routes and roots would be familiar to many of my generation, although we will all have different points of departure and different destinations. I hope that memories I have retrieved here will prompt others to recall and record their own experiences. 'One does not have to be solemn to be serious,' Oskar Spate used to tell his colleagues. Spate was the Foundation Professor of Geography at The Australian National University, and a distinguished humanist. Spate examined my doctoral thesis on the migration of Indian indentured labourers to Fiji, and continued to take a keen interest in my work and progress. Fiji, he said, was close to his heart. 'One must always wear one's learning lightly,' was Ken Gillion's advice to me. Gillion, a respected historian of the Indian indenture experience in Fiji, was one of my dissertation supervisors. The wise words of these two respected scholars have remained with me. Both Spate and Gillion belonged to an earlier generation which was genuinely concerned to communicate research in the intelligent language of ordinary discourse to an audience beyond the halls of the x Preface academy. Regrettably, their example runs counter to the currently fashionable trend in the academy for word games and jargon-laden, obscurantist prose, the converted talking to the converted, pandering to the educational establishment's demand for narrowly defined, peer reviewed research, publishing to get ahead, or get funded, not necessarily read. Some of this specialisation is, of course, necessary; but it is dangerous and distorting when carried to extremes, especially in the humanities. This collection of my essays and stories is a small act of rebellion against the current orthodoxy. It celebrates life in all its diversity, entertains the possibility of hope and progress in a world of bewildering change, and searches for complete explanations and universal truths without apology. Xl Tabia Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' We are not now the strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Alfred Lord Tennyson, 'Ulysses' I was my grandfathers favourite grandchild. Two of my older siblings had died during childbirth. Aja suspected an evil hand at work. So relying on remembered knowledge, he instructed Maria, the village midwife, to purchase me as soon as I was born. She did, for three pennies. I survived, old ways had worked, the chain of evil had been broken, there were no more deaths. Aja was reportedly ecstatic. Six days later, when I was first introduced to the world, my mother bought me back for six pennies, but Maria continued to claim me as her own son. Years later, when I was about to leave for university, I had to perform a special puja and give gifts to her to seek her permission to return formally to my own mother.