MY SAY.

BEST PRACTICE By Jeremy Leariwala Mara Day Celebration, an annual event that is dedicated to the conservation of the Mara River, is observed by the East African Community (EAC) on 15 th September. The event brings together environment conservation enthusiasts within the EAC; more so, those within Kenya and Tanzania-where the bulk of the Mara Ecosystem is found. For the year 2022, the theme of the event was: Towards Sustainable Mara River Ecosystem! Several groups (Conservation stakeholders) converged in Nakuru-Kenya, to celebrate this day. Personally, I was fascinated by FOMAWA (Friends of Mau Watershed) with their presentations. For over twenty years now, the group-FOMAWA-has endeavoured to preserve the Mau Watershed. With the two decades’ experience this group has identified the best practices of tree planting, and it has adopted a simple concept for disseminating that information too. With the help of well-wishers and people/organizations of goodwill, FOMAWA partners wit...

  MY PRIESTS, MY WRITING By Jeremy Leariwala Someone said, ‘show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.’ Another one, still, said, ‘you are what you read and what you think.’ Well, I found myself toying with these statements in my mind and remembered my priests. During my childhood, late 70s, unlike the case today, almost all the learning institutions, around my home, were church-owned-and-managed. From nursery schools all the way to technical schools. We attended these schools and, due to their roles in management, priests were among the common people we interacted with on a day to day basis. First, from them, we learnt quite a lot: the meaning of celibacy, service to the church and that Jesus NEVER disappoints. Secondly, they supplied our schools with books-lots of books, and they made sure that we watched, at least, one cinema every Saturday. The books and movies ‘transported’ us to the outside world, gave us a glimpse of what we didn’t know those days and broa...

THE WOMAN. When God created Adam, He gave him his image and likeness, Then he decided to give him a helper. God created the woman (Eve), a tender, Lovely piece of beauty she was. He put them together in his Eden Garden. The woman would carry generations, By nurturing them in her womb! Adam would build homes, Eve would hold the homes together, In a strong bond named ‘The Family’. Eve, an endearing partner she became. But today, man has forgotten much, The woman altered to a News item. A cruel murder of a wife here, A barbaric strike of another wife there, Another doused in corrosive acid afar, Or inconceivably tortured elsewhere! What happened to his love? Why scratch the skin of such beauty? Why kill an irresistible helper? Can wives bother by nagging? Yes! Husbands have the strength to endure, Or brains to decode a bickering woman! Quitting a relationship sounds impossible, But, wife battering, maiming or killing...

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES By Jeremy Leariwala Christmas time has always been a time to create memories, good ones for that matter. From the festivities; nuptials included, new dresses, shoes and toys to the urban folks strutting across the dusty-rural-streets in style, there is always something unique about the time. At the back of our minds (born 70s, 80s and 90s), images of model cities, created by the frail hands of villagers using clay, at the centre of the village, are tucked and vividly clear as if it is just the other day that we participated in Christmas competitions. When I was a child there were inter-villages competitions every end of the year. The rules were simple: the villagers were to organize themselves and use clay to create a model of Bethlehem, where Joseph & Mary had gone to be taxed. It must show Bethlehem as it were during the birth of Jesus Christ. Depending with the creativity of the villagers and their understanding of the story of Christ’s birth in the bible, the...

LOOKING ACROSS  By Jeremy Leariwala  Walker exits the van, immersing his fatigued body in a cold sea. A soft breeze, blowing directionless, carries a mixture of smells; from the leaves, tilled land to the approaching rains. Overhead, the sun lurks behind drifting clouds. Ahead stands a bearded man; one of the curios sellers aligned along Nyahururu-Subukia road, looking him over, sizing him and judging his purchasing power. But Walker stopped for something behind the shops. The magnificent view across the Rift Valley from Subukia’s Eastern viewpoint has always been nostalgic.  “Jambo?” The seller beamed.  “Jambo, jambo...”  Walker throws him another glance. Early thirty-ish, with a countenance of a stress-free family man. The artefacts: grey-haired busts, spear and shield wielding warriors, jumbos, giraffes, Thomson’s gazelles etc, line up behind him like a battalion. Enviable canvas paintings hang on his shop’s wall. An affordable artwork of a gourd-clutching Ga...

FLASH A.K.A VERY SHORT   By Jeremy Leariwala    Growing up as a reader of the novel, I loved to plough through acres of words, flipping over pages and tracing the story scene after scene. Packing a Tom Clancy or an Andy McNab novel in a day-sack and stroll down to the riverside always felt good. I learnt of flash fiction, just the other day!  During the Corona Virus lock-down, surfing the internet was one of the activities that filled the vacuum. The internet became the window and avenue to see what the neighborhood held. And so, through it, I explored the world of fiction writing. Talk of the Comic novel writing, the short film screenwriting or the short-short story writing. I dug deeper into the flash fiction story.  Now to cut long story short, the flash fiction story is a complete story that is about 75 words long! That is all the elements of good story telling employed in 75 words only. How on earth could I tell a whole story in such few words? It is not ea...