The 77-year-old gardener Jeewan Ghoolet, best known as Jeewan, breezily defines himself as a simple citizen, though carrying a loaded bag of experience and knowledge from carpentry to agriculture. He has successfully grasped opportunities coming to him while learning the hard way, having had to leave schooling at secondary level. The seeds of handicrafts and gardening knowledge which were sown in him in primary classes flowered upon his leaving formal schooling for good.

Cyclones Alix and Carol had whipped huts and corrugated iron houses to the ground. The village carpenter was in high demand to repair what could be repaired, and owners started timidly to venture into concrete housing construction. Jeewan, though an adolescent, joined one of the professionals as a carpenter apprentice while finding time to fertilise his kitchen garden with manure collected from the family’s cow and goat husbandry. The days were tough, but the household support and recognition of his dedication motivated Jeewan not to cry over his situation while his classmates were furthering their education in the school system.

He said, even at that age, a destitute family is not governed by fate. Nobody owes you a living. So, his perseverance led him to be recognised by the manager of the Rivière des Anguilles Agricultural Demonstration Center. Jeewan and his ‘patron’ had completed a cow shed to the satisfaction of the manager, Mr Vithylingum, who decided to arrange for the enrolment of the promising young man as a Boy/Messenger, the common appellation in the pre-independence days.

The Demonstration Center, pregnant with opportunities, became Jeewan’s university, where he decidedly took to learning his trade on the job. His inquisitiveness into the science of animal feeding, health and growth follow-up, paralleled with discovering how land is prepared, seeds germinate, grow into healthy vegetables, and water management, singled him out. Mr Vithylingum took him on his field visits as far as the then Ramphul Estate in Choisy, Baie du Cap, for technical and scientific guidance to the estate managers and employees. The estate was producing rice. The Boy/ Messenger was growing into an efficient technical assistant who captured the farming methods which he tried on his home premises, until his membership in the Young Farmers Club, initiated by Clovis Vellin, a far-sighted visionary, triggered yet another eventful journey in his career. He rubbed shoulders with the American Peace Corps who ran training in agriculture. Jeewan improved his domestic animal husbandry with the addition of rabbits and poultry. The yard was also embellished by a concrete pool for fish, a new source of pleasure for the household.

Too much work and no play makes one a dull boy. This adage became Jeewan’s accompanying mantra. In this spirit, he found time to play football and table tennis. Professionally, a promotion followed, compensating hard work evidenced by the output of his engagement with a posting at the Wooton Agricultural Station Laboratory under FAREI, formerly AREU, for five years. He spent the next seven years before retirement in the entomology unit in Réduit. On nearing retirement, he became attuned to the practices of saving our fruits and plants. As a matter of fact, Jeewan was called upon to demonstrate the techniques in Rodrigues. His rich experience has earned him the confidence and respect of university students on their BSc course in Agriculture. They come to him for technical advice. Jeewan could have joined the technical teaching staff if he had gone through the Recognition of Prior Learning process.

Today, life goes on. Turning on a new leaf without abandoning his vegetable proceeds for sale at the Riviere des Anguilles market place Jeewan climbed the Village Council election podium in 2020 and got elected by his peers as Chairman. His performance was explained by his popularity in the households as he has always ‘shouted’ for the betterment of village life.

Jeewan’s legacy is multifold: readiness and preparedness to assume his work load, the warmth of adopting a simple life style and always showering advice to all who seek to meet with him.