One entertaining afternoon as I sat upon the wall curiously watching all the people, a young Indian man stopped just before blocking my view. Â Gesturing towards the available spot next to me he asked if he could sit there. Â âYes of course,â I answered with a friendly smile. Â
He parked himself and watched Marine Drive with the rest of us. Â After a short while, he asked me where I was from. Â I laughed a little to myself before letting him in on my thoughts. Â
I answered him this way, âThereâs a little bitty group of islands in the deep South Pacific, very near to New Zealand. Â Thatâs the Fiji Islands.â Â The puzzled look on his face said it all. Â After a chuckle I said to him, âDo you know where Hawaii is?â Â
He said yes so I continued, âWell itâs about 6 hours if you fly or 5-6 days if you sail from there going further south. Â There are two big islands; Viti Levu being the one I was born on and the smaller of the two is Vanua Levu.â I explained. Â He seemed interested enough.
âMy island is slightly larger than Hawaii and there are several smaller ones in the group. Â The smaller ones have a few coconut trees, rooted in the sand, and theyâre just standing there.â Â the stranger smiled. Â
âWho knows, some storms come and wash them away for a time and maybe even the whole island!â Â I smiled big as he laughed loud and I ran on with my seemingly entertaining story.
âOriginally the natives were cannibals, before the Christian missionaries arrived. They ate some of them; the missionaries and their friends that is, until convinced otherwise by the remaining missionaries.â Â
This is really fun I thought to myself as I kept talking. Â
âWhen no one visited for a while, they probably boiled the bones of dinners past and had themselves a good soup.â Â I had to laugh because my wall-mate looked a little worried. Â
âThen the Indians eventually came along with some Europeans, a few neighboring islanders, and a handful of Chinese too; migrated to Fiji that is.â Â
I must tell you here, this was the loose version of my island history as we knew it and told each other as kids back home. Â I was done with my story for the time being. Â It was his turn now.
This young man was just as fresh to India as I was. Â He was born and raised in South Africa. Â His parents brought him her to experience India, his blood-line. Â They had an apartment home right there on the Queenâs Necklace aka Marine Drive. Â That was where a good percentage of the wealthy lived, at least some of the time. Â
We both realised our relation to one another was effortless as the hours passed in conversation and people watching. Â Â My new friend and I agreed to meet up very soon and further our adventures; we made plans to buzz all over Bombay and her outlying reaches. Â
We felt such a sense of adventure coming on; weâd go everywhere via double decker bus, taxi , auto rickshaw, train and most likely a lot of walking too!
Before I met this Jittu Singh, I had been told by a few people that I must get to the elevated hills behind all of this to witness a breathtaking view of the Queenâs Necklace in the evening hours. Â They were right, it was stunning! Â
Good times are rolling now and no I havenât forgotten that I still must get to London. Â All in its own time though I thought to myself.
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I laughed a little to myself – from experience past, at that time not many had heard of the Fiji Islands. Â I know, right?!!
Just a reminder:   Jittu Singh is the fictitious name of a real character, a wonderful addition to LBMâs first adventure in India.
The point of interest here was Bombayâs Malabar Hill. Â It is where It is where LBM stood to take in the view which was within the Kamala Nehru Park. Â
I sure do wish LBM could find some of those photographs he had taken in India and elsewhere too, I mean, while weâre at it âŚwishing and all!