Love in the time of Culture

By Zee Monodee

Hey ye all! Pleasure to be here today.

Hope everyone’s enjoying a fabulous summer. In the southern hemisphere, where I am, we’re in the throes of winter. Yes, we don’t get snow, but trust me, it gets cold. Imagine your hand in ice-cold water – not easily tolerable, right? That’s how I’d sum tropical cold.

And since we’re talking about tropics, and also since I’ve had the joy and honor of being a 1NS author for over a year now, I’ll take the chance you all know of Mauritius by now, where I’m from, and where my one night stand stories take place. (In case you’re still wondering what on earth this mad cow is talking about, Mauritius is a tiny speck of a tropical island, in the southern Indian Ocean. Tourist hotspot and highly-sought honeymoon destination for Europeans *grin*)

But you know what? Mauritius might be this super-spiffy island whose pictures don’t need to be Photoshop-ed  to showcase all the glorious hues of blue in its lagoon and coral-reefed sea, but the inhabitants live a different reality than the one most people the world over know.

Buy Once Upon a Story Night HERE

Love in the time of culture – this is how I could sum the situation when someone is looking for love in the contemporary Mauritian society. Never mind that this melting pot of culture has Hindu & Muslim Indian-origin folks, most of whose ancestors originally came to work as indentured laborers after the abolition of slavery; descendants of these African-origin slaves; Chinese migrants from the provinces of Canton and Hakka who came as traders; descendants of the original white settlers from France and England, with the occasional Irish thrown in. If you want to find love in Mauritius, you’re pretty sure you have to go through a society mama or a barrage of nosy old aunties who pick and discard prospective suitors with extreme prejudice, irrespective of cultural and/or ethnic origin. Old biddies here speak the universal language of gossip and society matchmaking!

This is the situation both Simmi Moyer, my heroine, and Lars Rutherford, my hero, face when they try to swim against the tide of society-driven matches and marriages. Thank goodness for the likes of Madame Eve of the 1Night Stand dating service, because it is she who brings these two kindred souls together.

But what they do on that one-night blind date is up to them. Neither is looking for love, but it still finds them...Once Upon A Stormy Night. 

Buy Once Upon a Second Chance HERE

Then I have Khalid and Leila Al-Nadir. A married couple, but estranged, 

with terrible secrets between them. For, you see, Leila was in an abusive marriage (she’d been sold off by her father) and Khalid rescued her...only to abandon her after one perfect wedding night.

Neither Khalid nor Leila are from Mauritius, but this is where Fate, in the form of a one night stand date arranged by Madame Eve, brings them together. Darkness and shadows abound, but love is also waiting for a door to open...Once Upon A Second Chance.

I hope you’ll take a chance of my world of culture and conventions, and join these two couples as they find the road to a Happily Ever After.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee