Mona?s story is a very unusual one. Back in Bombay where she comes from, her parents thought it was time she got married and settled down. A family friend knew a Mauritian man who was at the time visiting India and introduced them; five meetings later, she was flown to this country she?d only ever seen in Indian movies to star in her very own.

Mona Rao Ramrachheya got her first cultural shock at her very own wedding. ?A three-day long wedding with innumerable rites that no one had an explanation for, over 4,000 guests and food that wasn?t even remotely Indian in a ceremony meant to be Indian but that was so alien to me,? is how Mona describes her wedding. But she is smiling. She actually thinks the situation was rather funny since everybody she had met before she got married had told her that Mauritius was a ?mini India.? The reality could not have been further from the truth, she says good-humouredly.

?I come from Bombay. Picture it; crowded, westernized, so cosmopolitan, polluted, noisy and so warm and friendly.? And Mauritius? ?Oh, nice people no doubt but everybody is so reserved. Here, it?s so traditional and I?m not used to that. There is so much space and it?s quiet. God, even the leaves are green!?

Mona has however managed to adapt to her new home and the green leaves don?t shock her anymore. ?But I don?t take it for granted; the first thing I do every morning is to look at that beautifully blue sky and it?s still hard to believe I live here.?

Having worked as a fashion choreographer and a model coordinator in Bombay, she still misses the old life sometimes but she would never go back there to live. ?You see India stands for everything a mother does. But what can you do, I have fallen in love with my sons!?

Everybody speaks English at home and even though Mona?s French is not ?that good?, she manages to cope with everyday living in her new country. So much so that she takes an interest in local politics. What does she think then? ?That it?s high time for the emergence of a third party.? Does she think there?s room for a third party? ?Let?s just say that there?s always room for honest people.? To the question of whether she means what we think she means, Mona replies that, having lived here for 11 years, she has the right to vote. ?But I?ve always refused to because it would be like choosing between a green and a red apple.?

Not a very positive outlook then? Rather than answer the question, Mona explains that her husband always used to complain about how corrupt India is. ?Then, a few years after living in Mauritius and understanding what was going on around me, I said to my husband ? I?m not homesick anymore!?