Tag: Shahil Soniassy

Several Farewell Parties, Palmar, Belle Mare & Rose Hill, Mauritius, 17 August 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Here is an extract from my “Remaining Journal”, which is in effect my diary entry for 17 August 1979 – my last diary entry written during the Mauritius trip.

Friday 17th of August 1979 –

Having stayed at Marraz’s, we went on a grand family picnic at Palmar (and Belle Mare). Had a terrific time there and in the evening we ended up with a sort of improvised party with Janee’s nephews, nieces and cousins. We stayed at Garçon’s last night, with a mind to finishing our shopping in Curepipe with the help the chauffeur.

Even now, with dozens of hotels along that coast, both Palmar and Belle Mare still have public beaches, where lovely people such as the Biltoos and their extended families might well still party, as we did.

This looks like Manjula’s belated birthday party. Whether this is the same as the “impromptu evening party” at the end of our trip or not I cannot be 100% sure, but based on other diary entries mentioning its postponement several times, I think it might well be
Manjula looks as though she has been at her daddy’s bottle of rum, but perhaps she was just tired out from all the excitement of the day.

Elements of the beach party – playing ball games, dancing, eating and generally having a good time – are charmingly recorded on cine film – to be seen towards the end of this video – c8:30 to c11:15

These gatherings/parties at the end of our stay were a highlight among many highlights for me – the culmination of unforgettable and life-forming experiences over five weeks in Mauritius.

A Day Trip To Grand Baie With Shahil’s Family, 13 August 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Here is an extract from my “Remaining Journal”, which is in effect my diary entry for 13 August 1979.

Monday 13th of August 1979 –

Went early to Shahil’s, but because of bus strike, his father had to shuttle all the workers to work et cetera and so we couldn’t make an early enough start to go to Île aux Cerfs (as planned). Instead we want we instead we went to Grand Baie and other resorts along the north coast.

We returned early to be collected by Jan Sooknah. We went to his place, had dinner there and chatted until quite late.

I’m pretty sure this picture was taken at Grand Baie that day. Left to right: Dat Biltoo, Anil Biltoo, Shahil Soniassy, Nanda Soniassy, then Mr & Mrs Soniassy with Shahil & Nanda’s two younger siblings.

A Day And Night At Shahil’s, Mauritius, 7 August 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Here is an extract from my tenth letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 7 August 1979:

As you may tell from the date my diary is a little behind again, and it was only the receiving of two letters from you today that reminded me. I think that the last time I wrote was the morning of the seventh or the evening of the six it doesn’t really matter.

You are my greatest fan; three letters and not one complaint about my handwriting. It is atrocious I admit.

Anyway the morning of the seventh Anil and I went shopping in Rose Hill about thrice, in short bursts. Anil (as usual) has almost completely finished ploughing through his money, and his only hope is that he wins at the races on Sunday!! Last Sunday, Garçon, who is in the know, made a few hundred pounds, so Anil’s got the bug! If it’s one of Garçon’s bad weeks, he’s [Anil’s] had it!!!

In the afternoon we went to Shahil’s for tea and dinner, and then a snap decision to stay the night, which was good fun, but a late night.

Shahil Trying To Look Cool
Anil, Shahil & Me. Not a great photograph. I have just spotted the two-finger signal from Shahil above Anil’s head, 40 years later.
Dutt (Bill), Anil, Shahil, Nanda, Shahil & Nanda’s parents and their two younger siblings
(I think I’m calling all of this but corrections welcomed):
Left to Right: Baby, Shahil, Min, Anil, Nanda

Anil decided to have one of his respiratory attacks (not quite asthma but nearly) that (of course, seeing as he was separated from his tablets) meant he spent the whole night wheezing. He is still ill, I’m afraid to say and was very irritable today, as he was confined to barracks on his birthday, but that’s another story..

Shahil And Sega Records, Mauritius, 29 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my seventh letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 29 July 1979:

Anyway, on Sunday, although we were going to go fishing, it was decided that we were too tired, so we had a lazy day and will go fishing at a later date.

In the morning we did an awful lot of nothing at all. Just before lunch another of Anil’s cousins Shahil came to lunch and for the afternoon. He is from the side of the family that we don’t talk about, but he is accepted cause he’s nice. He is 17, which makes him good company for us. In the afternoon he took Anil and me out around Rose Hill, and then to a garden fete. In the evening we all danced Sega (Shahil brought some [records, presumably] with him) and thus we spent the evening until bedtime.