Producing a storm

Have you been told some time or the other that if you really need something, you will get it? Has it ever happened? Of course it would have. And that something would be a life changing wish like getting married to the guy/girl of your choice or getting admission in the school you dreamt of or a dream car.....

I have had many such wishes and I went behind it and realized it. What I am sharing today is not anything of that sort; and yet it was something I really needed and I got it in a short time even without searching for it.

My last visit to the US in 2010; my friend was relocating to another apartment and I was helping him clear off his belongings. This arrangement was temporary since he would move to another place in a couple of months. So instead of moving all his stuffs; he was taking only the much needed and dumping everything off in the public storage. While cleaning a closet; I came across a long wooden tube. When I took it in my hands; it seemed hollow inside and was making a musical sound like falling rain. My friend noticed it and he told me he got it during his trip in San Diego. A note was attached to the instrument. Reading it; I got to know that the instrument was called a Rain stick. They were made only from a particular species of cactus after its dead by Indian tribes of Chile. They used it as a musical instrument to bring rain. They were farmers living in the Atacama desert area. Thorns from the plants are pressed into dead wood. The pebbles hitting these thorns as they fall down the hollow tube creates rain-like sound.

The mention of South America, Chile, Atacama enchanted me. I was holding the 1 meter long cylindrical tube in my hand for a long time. My friend showed no sign of understanding; he promptly took it from me and placed it in a corner among the dumps we were to take it to storage. I asked him if he is going to store that away? He answered in affirmative. I pursued; told him it would be nice to have it with him and he can play it to soothe himself; the music that came out from it was mesmerizing. He said he did not want it. A part of me was thinking then why not offer it to me? I wouldn't ask ever. I was thinking he would change his mind and give it to me later as a token of appreciation for helping him. 

So after clearing up everything, we made a number of rounds to the storage carrying the loads in his car. When it was time for the rain stick, I made one last attempt to coax him to keep it with him thinking he would just offer it to me. He didn't; it went to the dark corner of the cold storage room and shut tight.

I thought about the rain stick for few days; I was wondering if they sold it anywhere else near by in and around Silicon valley or in India. The rain stick was producing a storm within me and I wished I could find it somewhere sometime in future during my travels. I left USA and on my way visited Mauritius. I forgot about the rain stick after few days. Visited Casela National park the second day and while exiting; we had to get out through a souvenir shop. That's when I noticed it; I wanted to make sure I was seeing what I was thinking. Yes! it was! the rain stick. These ones were not rustic and unpainted like the one Shyam had. They were brightly painted in orange, green, blue and red and carved by hand. I immediately bought one. I could get it in less than a month's time was something I never thought would happen.

Its there with me and will be there for ever. Whenever I want to hear the sound of falling rain; I roll the rain stick. :)

Here is mine.

A typical rain stick - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rainstick_01.png

More about rainsticks - http://www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/Rainsticks-Heard%20Museum.htm

Sound of a rain stick - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rainstick.ogg

Mauritius - The End

There was one special thing that I wanted to see - Nymphaeaceae or the great water lilies with humongous leaves. The Botanical Garden of Pamplemousses has a variety of them among others as palm trees, spices etc. Its amazing to see how this tropical garden has been preserved for centuries. Everything here seems over sized.

The last day was spent in visiting the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden at Pamplemousse. Before this was the visit to Mauritian Glass factory. cum museum at Phoenix where skilled craftsmen make exquisite varieties of glass wares from recycled glass. Used bottles and glasses are brought back to life with a decorative edge. The museum houses glass footprints and hands of fame of famous personalities from around the world. It also has a nice gallery where objects like table, chairs are all made out of glass, mirrors which manipulate your image and a souvenir shop to pick hand made glasses.

Among other things, handcrafted models of famous ships with patience, made by hand to revive the memories of these sailing ships long ago which was part of histories being made are most beautiful. Each model is an exact replica of the original one - with the sails, masts, canons and all that exquisitely handcrafted. The blueprints are acquired from maritime museums all around the world and then faithfully reproduced on a miniature scale accurate to the last scale from the hull to the deck, railings, lifeboats, ropes, figure-heads....
Be it the Marie-Rose, the Bounty, the Santa Maria or the Sao Raphael or the Titanic...nothing is missing. They are exact replica of the original.

The Mauritian Glass Factory - display as to How to say glass around the world. Check if your native tongue is in here.

Many objects - single component- Glass

Chairs and center table

Man at work. Molding and designing artifacts.

The workshop

It has a souvenir shop to pick up glass artifacts. not to miss the offset glass and glass Dodos. I got them as souvenirs :)

Dodos. 

Bus Stop. Can you imagine boarding a bus each day to your work with such a gorgeous background for your view? 

I used a public restroom, this is how the view is next to it :)

At the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden. Nymphae of all colors.

The leaves of Victoria Amazonica. They have large leaves which can be upto 3 m in diameter.

I was waiting to see this massive leaves for a long time; after seeing them on TV. What I saw disappointed me; the leaves were withered and were not as massive as they should be. Then I saw this notice put beside the pond.

A baby leaf

I could not get enough of it. Even though they were not as huge as they were supposed to me, they were still huge.

Gleaming under the sun....

Few others

I just loved the way the water drop was resting on the leaf.

A lavender one.

There were lot of trees and palms

The

Administrative office.

A model ship making workshop cum store. Each piece takes 2-3 months to finish. They cost anywhere between 300-1000$. The lady was showing me many ship models. When I mentioned I wanted Santa Maria, she was amazed and said "You do know about ships. You are choosing a special one too. Not many tourists have a least idea about ships, they fail to appreciate it."

I bought a Santa Maria as a souvenir. Santa Maria de la Inmaculada Concepción was one of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus on his maiden voyage to the New world in the 15th century. 

This one here is Royal Caroline 1749.

Wasa 1628 Spanish warship. The ship sank after sailing less than a nautical mile into her maiden voyage.

Soleil Royal - French 104-gun ship.

I forgot which one is this :( There were so many replicas that it was overhwelming.

A artwork at the Caudon water front area.

Posta Museum. It was past 5 and so was shut :(

the Mauritius General Post Office. Old French colonial building.

 

Market where I bought some fruits to munch on. 

This blue glass facade building houses British Airway office.

 

Restaurants by the sea. It was here that I had my "glasse" experience.

 

My husband enjoying the ambiance.  

 

Mauritius lacks historical significant monuments, spectacular view points, natural wonders or anything of that sort. One can see few colonial buildings in French style. Its a place for lazing around and relaxing.

Mauritius Continued

Continuing from my previous post, some more of Mauritius. I indulged in two adventures there. The first one is under-sea walking. You have a solar-powered oxygen kit that you wear like an helmet and tie heavy belts accentuated with heavy stones and get under the sea. The heavy belt is to help you stay put under water and the oxygen kit helmet is to help you breathe. The water was chill in the beginning but then you get one with the sea. The instructors get good care and monitor your comfort-ability regularly. Its quite an experience to have your feet buried deep in the sad while water overhead tries to push you away. Those colorful and beautiful fishes around you swim effortlessly and you marvel at their agility. As we held out our hands to feed them, they nibble tiny bits of food and swim away. An instructor grabbed a tiny sea snail and handed it over to me. I held that tiny thing for sometime and later don't know when I dropped it.

If this was once-in-a-lifetime experience, para sailing was another level of fun. Though I wouldn't call it adventurous; my husband did scream and shout. He was chiding me for being calm and laughing; and was wondering why I was not scared! Looking at the turquoise water and the deep blue sea forming a natural boundary and those pearly white sands was ecstatic. Para sailing did not give me an adrenaline rush! I am waiting for sky diving to happen! Hopefully soon!!

Another queer but amusing thing I noticed was how Indian names were Mauritian-ized. "Manju" spelt as "Manjoo", "Gokul" as "Gocool" and so on. We could go up to the door of the Prime Minister's office and take a snap! How cool is that. The landscape is volcanic; the hills surrounding have a spiky edges to them and not having seen such hills and mountains earlier; they did look a bit artificial.

One thing I marveled about the place was public toilets - well maintained and clean. Whenever I used public toilets I was scared of being nagged for money as it happens here. But none of that kind happened. 

Few pictures.

A lady at work helping keep the place clean at Grand Bay.

The oily noodles I mentioned in my last post. Could not eat 1 spoon of it. I felt bad when I had to leave the food when the lady who prepared it asked if I didnt like it. I lied that I was feeling sick. she believed me and told me to take care :-(

This one gave us company and I was glad that I didnt have to throw away the noodles. She ate it all.

A lovely dog. Was loitering around in this park.

Streets of Port Louis - the capital. 

This is what I was talking about. :)

A traffic policeman manning the traffic in front of the PM's office. The roads are narrow.

Again here is the Mauritian version of "Ranganathan Srinivasan"

Corridor of Prime Minister's office. He was out of town; else maybe I would have had an audience with him :-P

A church on the hill top. I forgot its name. French is difficult than Spanish. But I heard that this church has been pictured in lotta Bollywood movies. It was past 5 PM and the church was shut! I came to know that people dont work/loiter beyond 5 and everything shuts down!!

Port Louis as seen from the church

The next day, it was 9:30 AM and we did not have beach wear. So forced this chap to open his shop so that we could buy some beach wears. Got some awesome stuff  - sarongs with fishes printed on them. 

Catamaran! Do you remember the song "Churake Dil Mera" - Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty? Yeah the song was filmed in this island on some catamaran. Not this one; but the island is Ile Aux Cerfs

People live here. The island is so gorgeous and heaven. Our guide for the day Kishan told he stays here. 

Kishan

 

I dont know its name. It had a long tail and was cute.

Waterfall adjacent to the sea. 

The stage for Para sailing. At Ile Aux Cerf, after visiting the waterfall,  came back for Para sailing.

These guys have to try hard to control the parachute and that the guests are not hurt and land safely. They do this every 5 minutes. 

 

Thats me!!

After para sailing, a leisurely drink, playing in the sand and the turquoise water . People were relaxed, sun bathing in nude forgetting all the worries of the world :)

Rest area. 

The sea, translucent and transparent, so clean and tidy.

 Paradise? Probably...maybe...sure! I had not seen earlier such a clear blue sky, sun shine just right, clear blue water and white sands. I do not remember how long I played, but I did play in the waters for a long long time.

Lot of star fishes hit the shore. As big as one's palm, pinkish.

And some sea urchin's shell - in colors of black and purple.

After playing, a BBQ buffet. As I do not eat meat, my options were limited but I did not mind it. This view was more than sufficient.

Can you see them? Now thats romantic!

Secluded, calm and pristine. 

All for yourself....