Anoucheka Gangabissoon, teacher and poet : young teacher compares poetry to therapy

Poetry is the medium that Anoucheka Gangabissoon uses to express her sentiments to the world. She has more than 400 poems published on her blog: -anoucheka.blogspot.com and poetrysoup.com and has five publications to her name.

On poetrysoup.com, which is an international site, Anoucheka Gangabissoon has participated in many poetry competitions, being often among the winners. “I was also among the winners of an international poetry competition based in Italy, called the Gli Amici di Guido Gozzano,” says the primary school teacher. Her works have appeared in various literary magazines both in print and online sites around the world, in countries like Canada, Africa, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and India. As a poet and author, Anoucheka Gangabissoon would like to see Mauritius hold a good position in the international literary field.

Becoming a writer has been a childhood dream. “I grew up with fairy tales in my head and knew that one day, I would be an author,” she reveals. It is in difficult times, she continues, that God pushed her on the path of poetry. Writing and poetry act as a therapy in one's life. "I think that God speaks to me to alleviate the suffering that I simply feel to be alive in a world that has no meaning because everything ends with death,” argues the poet.
For her, writing is an element of mysticism and has a spiritual meaning. For this reason, many of her poems are about the lost person who looks up to God, the Savior. “Writing is a gift from God,” she affirms. She would like Mauritians to be more interested in her art and imagination. “It's something that resonates inside me and runs through my veins, just seeking to be shared,” she says.

As she sees it, her poetry would give people a chance to not only have a peak into her soul but would also inspire them to have a new outlook at life with a sort of divine track added to it.  “After all, many of my poems are spiritual.  As for the love poems, they have a meaning.  I know they seem riddling when I just display them like that.  But someday, if life would turn out the way I wish it to be, I would then write an autobiography and I would explain what I was writing about in my poems,” she adds. 

Reading culture in Mauritius

However, she is saddened by what is happening to the reading culture in our country.  It seems that reading is restricted only to the older generation while the youth simply rebukes this activity. Reading, for her, has become something which people do only to get information and not for pleasure, like it is limited to news, Facebook updates, messages and studying for exams.  “When I approach people during my book signing sessions, very few of them respond positively. They listen to me, about the book and then they thank me politely.  Those who show interest are scarce,” she deplores.   Being an author and a teacher, she is much distressed by this.  She wishes people would let go of their tablets and Smartphones, and would go back to holding a book in their hands and being amazed at what has been written therein.

E-books vs. printed books

Anoucheka Gangabissoon does not think that e-books are causing books to fade.  The stories, the messages they carry, are still there.  It is only the medium through which people read that has changed.  “In Mauritius, e-books have still a long way to go merely because the purchasing system of such type of media is yet to be worked on.  Abroad, on the other hand, many authors sell their books via Kindle and other e-versions,” she declares. She herself would be for the implementation of an e-book system in Mauritius as she believes that we have to do whatever we can to save trees and protect the environment.  And maybe then, the reading culture would meet with some positivity.