COMPASSION is unconditional and powerful.
It has the ability to transcend societal expectations, cultural divides and physical barriers.
This is perfectly true in Sumindar Kaur’s Kashmir, Lautoka home.
The 58-year-old and her husband took in 37-year-old Mataiasi Buli, when his mum tragically passed away in 2020.
Out of concern and to keep them company, the couple welcomed someone different from them to share their home and love.
“Now, he’s like my son,”Sumindar says.
“Even my in-laws liked him because he’s fluent in Hindi.”
She lost her husband in 2023. Now, she, runs a small canteen from home with Mataiasi’s help.
Sumindar and her late husband had forged a close relationship with Mataiasi’s family years ago.
Her little shop was the common denominator, where members of the community would converge to buy.
It was in this little trading space that the relationship between an Indo-Fijian and an iTaukei family was kindled,
“I would be in my shop, and Mataiasi’s family would come around because they were attached to us, especially his parents and sisters,” she said.
“My neighbours are all iTaukei. Whenever they meet me, they tell me, ‘auntie, there’s no other shopkeeper like you’.”
Sumindar said she valued Mataiasi’s willingness to keep a widow company, at a time when many old people are neglected by society.
“Kids don’t bother about the family, they’re busy on their phones,” she said.
“But when he comes home, he asks me who someone is and how he or she is related to me. “.
“His family is also fluent in Hindi, and he is very considerate. I’m vegetarian and he also doesn’t eat meat.”
Sumindar said she refused to be dependent on family members for financial assistance because she was conscious of the fact that they also had their own financial obligations.
“Sometimes, when I see people on the streets asking for money, I always think that it’s better for them to work in somebody’s house, or sell vegetables at the market, so that they can earn $25 or $20 a day.
“How long do people expect to beg on the streets? I think they have to try to help themselves at some point in their lives.”
Sumindar believes there’s always room for love and compassion in the home.
Mataiasi is equally grateful to Sumindar for her kindness; for giving him a home and for showing him the virtues of true acceptance.
Inset: Mataiasi Buli.
Picture: SALOTE QALUBAU
