Book: Loga Virahsawmy and her stories of love, hurt and disappointment

Loga Virahsawmy is one of those writers who are not very prolific, no doubt considering that they need themes, sometimes personal or universal, to pick up the pen. For her latest book, launched on October 29, 2022 and entitled “Ink Blossoms”, she has tackled a plurality of themes, often articulated around atypical or marginal subjects.

The softness, the benevolence and the smile, always of rigor, hide in Loga Virahsawmy, an acute and uncompromising observer of the Mauritian society. But there is also in her, a desire to make prevail a form of cultural ecumenism which, perhaps, which is rooted in deep Mauritius and seeks elsewhere when young Mauritians return home after their studies in Europe. . Loga Virahsawmy is far from giving lessons, nor is she an observer of hushed salons. His latest book, which contains six “short stories” and a “novel”, reflects a variety of concerns. However, the author also strives to restore what is undoubtedly a character trait: a certain idea of ​​piety and spirituality in the form of Hindu female deities. But at no time does she fall into a form of obscurantism or religiosity that would take over her observations.

Chitra and Arjuna

The first story deals with the questions raised by the arrival of a boy adopted in India within a young Mauritian couple. And that will be the start of expectations and speculation. Here, Loga Virahsawmy makes use of her knowledge of Mauritian society. As soon as Chitra and Arjuna return to Mauritius with the little boy, the most negative comments begin to fuse. “Instead of adopting a child in the family, they preferred to go to India, now all their fortune will go to this bastard”. And like most parents who have adopted, Chitra and Arjuna thought of the best for the child by first naming him Ganesh, “he who removes obstacles and who is the patron of intellectuals”, while an elderly aunt, reading the young boy’s eyes, predicts that he will be of exceptional intelligence.

At the age of three, Ganesh turned out to be a boy full of life, but he did not speak, only repeating the words “ma…ma, pa…and Oyi”, leaving his parents worried. At the speech therapist, the latter reassured them that there was nothing serious about Ganesh. At the time of an examination, only the sight of a truck caused a jump in the child, who pronounced the words “Oyi, oyi”. Soon his parents had doubts.

“Did we do well to adopt a child without knowing his past? they wondered, pushing the reflection to the point of wondering if little Ganesh was not the fruit of the meeting between a truck driver and a young prostitute from the slums of Mumbai. This first “short story” gives an indication of the themes that will follow in Loga Virahsawmy’s book: no complacency or “happy ending”, but central characters with atypical destinies.

Drug trafficking

Like Ramon, the monkey who plays investigators to unmask drug trafficking. However, he has wandering hands and he is also able to smell odors from very far away. He used to sit next to Madame Samy when she said her prayers, so that a devotee came to think that he could be a reincarnation of the monkey god Hanuman. One fine day, what had to happen happened: the little monkey went too far in his teasing, which forced his master, Your Filip, to lock him in a cage. But Ramon reacts very badly, letting himself be won over by hunger… The rest is the continuation of a series of little adventures which lead the monkey on the trail of drug traffickers.

Using a simple style, Loga Virahsawmy declines certain stories with endings as she wishes and others more rooted in Mauritian reality. Thus, for the one entitled “When Old Friends Meet”, she brings together three old friends Sarah, Latah and Zorah, 45 years later, and all three of different faiths. Each one recounts her journey, with her obstacles, family conflicts and pains and wounds. There is, no doubt, a part of idealism in Loga Virahsawmy, a hint of poetry, but above all a big heart.

“Ink Blossoms”, by Loga Virahsawmy (125 PP)

Printed by Dragon Printing Ltd