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‘No hurry, No worry’ island of Fiji beckons more Indians

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You can find white sandy beaches, palm tree-lined shores, crystal clear waters and sunny blue skies at several places in the world, but not if you think of combining that with the happy, warm and hospitable vibes of the locals.

That’s available in Fiji in galore, where the “Bula” greeting instantly makes you feel welcome and at home.

Based on that, the island nation is calling out for more Indians to come calling. Faiyaz Koya, the country’s Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism is hopeful that with the appointment of Bollywood actress Ileana D’Cruz as Tourism Fiji’s brand ambassador in India, there will be a rise in visitors from the country.

India and Fiji, he said, share a long-standing relationship of celebrating cultural diversity and common values.

“Fiji and India share a deep historical bond and our Prime Minister has met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi many times to discuss ways in which we can continue to work closely together,” Koya told IANS in an email interview following a visit by this correspondent to the island when the minister was unavailable.

As Koya pointed out, the confluence of culture in Fiji — a tapestry of indigenous Fijian, Indian, European, Chinese and other nationalities — has created a unique national identity. To sample this, tourists are coming in from all over the world, especially from closer destinations like Australia and New Zealand.

For travellers coming in from India, it’s a long, arduous journey — nothing less than a day. But the bonhomie of live Fijian music while you wait for your turn at the immigration line at the Nadi airport takes the exhaustion away.

Koya admits “proximity and competition from cheaper destinations” continue to be key challenges in boosting tourism from India. But while the national carrier Fiji Airways has made travel out of Asia easier by opening up direct flights to Singapore, he said the Indian market has seen a steady increase, at an average growth of 13 per cent over the last 5 years.

Koya said Fiji is open to investment in its tourism industry and that they are very keen to have some of the top Indian brands set up here.

“Fiji has more than 300 islands worth of adventure, rich and vibrant culture and warm and friendly people. Our picturesque and natural environment make the long journey worthwhile and the stay sweeter,” he said.

It sure does.

“What is this life if full of care; we have no time to stand and stare,” Welsh poet W.H. Davies had questioned in the poem “Leisure”.

In Fiji, you have all the time to “stand and stare” at the bountiful natural beauty and more.

“In Fiji, No hurry, No worry,” the locals will tell you, reminding you there’s a life beyond deadlines and sticking to time-tables.

You learn to breathe, to soak in the scenes, including the calmness of the sea, the soothing lush green landscapes, the beauty of the blue sky, the splashing waves and even the eerie sound of stridulating crickets at night when a blanket of stars in the sky is enough for company.

For the more adventurous travellers, the archipelagic state has experiences galore on sea, underwater, land and air. For someone who doesn’t even know how to swim too well, the Fijian waters tempt you to forget the fears and take a plunge. A look at the Split Rock — considered the best snorkelling spot in Savusavu Bay — can leave you asking for more views of marine life, especially if it’s your first time.

As for daring options, there’s a shark dive in Pacific Harbour and sky diving opportunities too.

Interestingly, there are a plethora of eco-friendly resorts that help create sustainable tourism benefitting the environment apart from the country’s economy. Guests can take part in conservation programmes like coral planting which help leave the environment in a better condition and make a difference.

Some resorts in Fiji are as big as a small town. In Pacific Harbour, there’s the world-renowned Nanuku Resort, where a villa is no less than a dream house.

In Savusavu, the Namale Resort and Spa, which attracts the best names from Hollywood and the fashion world, is spread across 525 acres of tropical beauty in the northern island of Vanua Levu. You can trek to a waterfall and enjoy a picnic here or kayak away.

For those who want to enjoy a truly tropical lifestyle; the Savasi Island Resort, also in Vanua Levu, gives you complete privacy with rooms and villas tucked in a dense jungle.

What sets the overall experience apart is how the hotels’ staff members remember your name from the moment you tell them to the moment you leave. And all you can say is “Vinaka” — the traditional thank you.

The ignored, inconvenient truth about the Islamic State

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Title: The Way of the Strangers – Encounters with the Islamic State; Author: Graeme Wood; Publisher: Penguin Random House; Pages: 352; Price: Rs 499

It is very easy to dismiss terrorists, especially those of a fundamentalist religious persuasion, as a group of savages in unstable or failed states distorting their faith for their own purposes. But can this approach be applicable to the Islamic State (IS), or suggest how we can tackle its growing global threat?

The approach is totally wrong, argues journalist and academician Graeme Wood — and not only for the IS. As we have known from the “Global War on Terrorism”, America and its allies ignored the fact that ideologies cannot be fought militarily, but by proving they are wrong or that better ideas are available.

However, in the case of the Islamic State, says Wood, it is not that its adherents’ view of Islam is wrong, for all its usual activities — slavery, mutilation and extreme violence against non-Muslims and “apostate” Muslims (Shias, Sunnis, Sufis, secular, “insufficiently Islamic”, etc) who oppose them — are based on Islamic scripture and practice (in the faith’s initial days though).

Though a minority, uncompromising and apocalyptic view, it is Islamic — though a mindset not shared by the vast mainstream of Muslims, who seek to describe it as a travesty of their religion, he shows.

Then, given the number of educated professionals the IS has been recruiting from affluent and modern Western societies and elsewhere, it definitely strikes a chord among some in the Muslim community at large, he says.

“The breadth of the appeal of the Islamic State was shocking as its depth. Three generations of conservative Muslims from outside London, a skirt-chasing bachelor from South Australia, and tens of thousands of others had drunk their inspiration from the same fountains. In addition to the physical caliphate, with its territory and war and economy to run, there was a caliphate of the imaginations to which all these people had already emigrated long before they slipped across the Turkish border…”

And all these had been “persuaded by the same propaganda, and, in many cases, the same people”, argues Wood.

It is accounts of interactions with some of these people — spread over Egypt, Japan, Australia, the Philippines’ Mindanao, Britain, the US, including in Dallas (a short distance from the author’s own childhood home), and spanning an Egyptian tailor, who once worked in New York and stitched a suit for Paul Newman, an Italian-origin Australian who is now the top Islamist firebrand Down Under, a mild Japanese academician, a British IS apologist — though with no intention of travelling to its territory, among others, he uses in his bid to explain the IS phenomenon.

Woven in are the theology and theologians of the Islamic State, the role of former Baathists, its difference from its jihadi forebear, Al Qaeda and other Islamist parties, and a concise but incisive narration of Islam’s rifts and challenges that helped give birth to such ideologies.

Furnishing his accounts of interactions with these characters, the “visible surface of a cause that was stirring emotions and convictions of tens of millions of others, and that would continue them for decades to come, even if it lost its core territory in Syria and Iraq”, Wood also provides insights into IS’ influencing and recruiting techniques — e.g., focussing on the most incongruous, not pious possibilities, and others.

While he wonders at the jarring prospect of smart, even gentle and well-mannered, intelligent people with the most wicked beliefs”, he however tells us that “when someone says something too evil to believe, one response is not to doubt their sincerity but to expand one’s capacity to imagine what otherwise decent people can desire”.

That, he holds, is the “proper response” to the Islamic State, but while stressing understanding what primes it rather than advocating steps to combat it, Wood also admits that “the tragedy is that even those inverted visionaries who live to realise their error will never be able to undo the misery they have inflicted on so many others”.

However, despite Wood’s thesis of how the Islamic State has its roots in Islam, this is no anti-Muslim rant, but rather a warning — for other Semitic as well as other faiths — on how an uncompromising attitude on reprising past practice of a religion, even in different contemporary circumstances, is a definite recipe for bloodshed and strife.

Google celebrates Ustad Bismillah Khan’s 102nd birthday

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Search engine Google on Wednesday paid tribute to Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, one of India’s most beloved musicians, on his 102nd birth anniversary with a special doodle.

The doodle, designed by Chennai-based illustrator Vijay Krish, celebrates Khan against the backdrop of a geometric style pattern with his instrument aloft, sending a festive tune out into the world.

Born in 1916, in a family of court musicians in Bihar, Khan was so much in love with his music that he often referred to his shehnai as his wife.

Famous for his common man behaviour and simplicity, he was a recipient of all four highest civilian award, including the Bharat Ratna, awarded to only a few musicians.

He not only performed during the first Independence Day celebration in 1947, but his music was also part of the first Republic Day celebration in 1950, which continues to this day.

“Though he started playing in public at the age of 14, Khan’s performance at the All India Music Conference in Kolkata in 1937 became a defining moment in his career.

“Three decades later, when he performed at the Edinburgh Music Festival, the shehnai acquired a global audience, and in the minds of millions, became synonymous with its player,” the doodle page said.

With a dream to unify the world with music, Khan passed away in 2006 in Varanasi where he spent his life.

(IANS)

Geelani Steps Down As Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman

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Hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani. (File Photo: IANS)


Senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on Monday stepped down from the chairmanship of his party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.

After a meeting of the party, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Hurriyat here said that senior Hurriyat leader Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai had succeeded Geelani as the Chairman.

The octogenarian Geelani will, however, continue as the Chairman of the separatist All Party Hurriyat Conference led by him.

Tehreek-e-Hurriyat is a constituent of Geelani-led Hurriyat group. It was formed in August 2004 following a split in the Jamaat-e-Islami.

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