Weekend Travel Special 2022 |
It’s a glorious autumn night in April in Mauritius when a small bus with disco lights and local Sega music drops us off in a village named after piment (chilli, in Mauritian Creole). We are at the house of Ved Bhujun, whose forefathers had set sail from India almost 200 years ago to this blue-green land.
The Bhujun family has retained its Indian heritage, despite a very mixed Creole gene pool now. A temple guards the home’s garden, we are welcomed with lit lamps, and Ved’s son — with the Indian Navy till a few years ago, and now in Mauritius’ anti-narcotics squad — tells me how, when he gets married, he will have not only Indian-style music and dancing but also a “turmeric ceremony”. There is nothing religious about these rituals; they are just vehicles for memories. As is the food. You realise as you taste it, here’s something that is Indianish, but not Indian — spices sans pungency, cultural resonances reshaped into new flavours.
