Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - October 2021

OCTOBER 2021 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 24
Stock Up
on the widest selection and the
best prices in Grenada at our two
conveniently located supermarkets.
Whether it’s canned goods, dairy
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The Food Fair has it all and a lot more.
Hubbard’s
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The Carenage:
Monday - Thursday
8 am to 5:30 pm
Friday until 8:45 pm
Saturday until
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Grand Anse:
Monday - Thursday
9 am to 5:30 pm
Friday & Saturday
until 7:00 pm
Tel: (473) 444-4573
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Next Month’s
Compass:
Transatlantic Passage Tips
Sailing Eastward from Panama
(Almost) Painlessly
Nifty Products for the New Season
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BOOK REVIEW BY J. WYNNER
A Man of Great Resolve
Sugar’s Sweet Allure, by Khalil Rahman Ali, Hansib Publications, ©2013. 312 pages. ISBN13: 978-1-906190-66-8
Rahaman Ali’s precise Sugar’s Sweet Allure is an interesting and informative novel about the Indian indentureship
experience in the Caribbean. In it readers journey first along the Grand Trunk Road in India, and then across the
ocean to British Guiana with Ali’s main character, Mustafa. A young man gifted with remarkable resolve, by the
end of the story Mustafa is transformed into a man worthy of great respect and honour.
Readers also see the merging of the racial, cultural and religious
differences among the people who came from far and wide — mainly
Africans, Indians, Chinese, and to a lesser degree Portuguese — and
formed the society that is Guyana today.
Ali’s novel is the flip side of Jang B. Bhagirathee’s Chalo Chinidad.
Instead of telling the story of indentureship as one of hardship, and
set in Trinidad, Ali gives a positive perspective of the arrival of the
Indian people in the West Indies, set in Guyana.
The Guyanese-born author recounts the life of Mustafa from the
time, as an 18-year-old Muslim, he was forced to flee his home
village near Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, and travel
the ancient Grand Trunk Road (which runs from today’s Bangladesh
to Afghanistan) because of his forbidden love for Chandini, his
Hindu sweetheart.
Mustafa’s aim was to find work, save his money and return to his
village to ask for the hand of his beloved. But life’s experiences along
the Grand Trunk Road unfolded differently, taking him farther and
farther away.
Along the way his adventures were many and varied. But no
matter the situation, he always knew when it was time to leave and
get back and continue his journey on the Grand Trunk Road.
When Mustafa stopped in an unknown village to rest under a
banyan tree he was mistaken for a holy man and no matter how
much he said otherwise, “The Long Walk beckoned once again for
the Reluctant Holy Man.”
A stay in Allahabad for the better part of a year at a Christian
church, where he worked as a gardener and attended Sunday
school, helped to improve his English speaking, reading and
writing. But when the question of conversion stepped in, Mustufa
stepped away.
In Varanasi he experienced Diwali, the Festival of Lights, where
“the glorious lights of the clay lit diyas flickered” throughout the city.
It was as if the lights lit up the person that he had become, too,
“stronger, bigger in build, fitter mentally and physically, confident and less scared of anyone or any challenge”.
The new Mustafa, having obtained a ride on the cart of Sundar Das, a recruiter for an agent in Calcutta, signed
on with him to work as an indentured labourer in British Guiana (now known as Guyana). The long bumpy ride
continued until at last they got to Calcutta and boarded the ship to the New World and a new way of life. Readers
experience every detail in the long, turbulent crossing of the Kaala Paani — the Dark Waters of the Ocean.
In British Guiana, Mustafa’s main regret is that his letters back home have gone unanswered. He has lost touch
with his family and Chandini, but his resolve wins him not only many friends who admire and respect his
leadership qualities, but also favour with his bosses, which earns him advancement in his work. He marries, has
two sons, and progresses from labourer to driver until he is finally able to buy land and open his own business.
When Mustafa and his wife, Neesha, go matchmaking to the home of the Khudabakshs on behalf of one of their
sons, Mustafa recognizes the girl’s mother. It is Chandini. She tells him that her parents and siblings died. So did
his parents. Their village went into decline, and Chandini then left, looking for work. Along the way she heard of
work overseas and made the crossing to British Guiana.
The date chosen for the double wedding of his sons is the anniversary of the day Mustafa arrived in British
Guiana, May 4th, 1845 — a memorable day for Mustafa. Ahmed weds Pansy, a Chinese girl from the village. Rattan
weds Chandini’s daughter, Soraya, the couple hoping to live the love that Mustafa and Chandini could not fulfill.
Sugar’s Sweet Allure is a well-crafted story, rich in West Indian history. Spend some time reading this book and
you will be enjoying time well spent.
ISLANDER
Folks who live on islands, those who call an island home,
Whether black or brown or white, they seem compelled to roam.
Maybe because an island is surrounded by the sea
Which is restless, ever changing, that each island seems to be
A starting point for journeys, to look, learn and return
To family who understand the wanderlust that burns
In every island heart, producing cravings and a flair
For arranging frequent travels, on the sea or in the air,
Throughout the world he wanders, absorbing each new land,
Its peoples, its priorities, to try to understand
What makes a different culture. Could he live there? Maybe stay?
Enjoy his life’s adventure in some huge land far away?
And many meet the challenge, function well and have success,
But when the load is heavy and his life seems only stress,
Imagination takes him where his heart will always be
Swinging in a hammock by the blue Caribbean Sea.
When icy winds blow keenly, when trees are dark and bare,
He shakes his head and wonders what the hell he’s doing there?
Relentless blizzards rage all night, the paths are blocked with snow,
No matter what the winter sends, to work he has to go!
To an office or a work site, he has to make his money,
Why? To be able to afford to fly to somewhere sunny!
For two short weeks he journeys home, and everyone is fine.
Old pals laughing, eating well — they haven’t got a dime!
But they get by, the pace is slow, but still they love and laugh,
And care and share, and give and take, and somehow there’s enough.
But habit seems to rule our lives, then one day we are old,
The island life is just a dream, a dream that he has sold,
And replaced with a life of toil and hardship, but success
Is his! According to the world, he’s lucky; he is blessed?
— Nan Hatch
Island Poets
WILFRED DEDERER