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Veersen Bhoolai’s memoir, Afghanistan, 2009-2012
Veersen Bhoolai expected challenges as a United Nations journalist working in Afghanistan in 2009 and he got them. Missing a suicide bomber by mere metres, dodging rockets; sleeping in tents in sub zero weather with no heat; sleeping on his office desk to avoid sub-zero tents and trying to use toilets with about three inches of shit piled up all over the floor.
What he did not expect was to have to tolerate static from the very people with whom he worked. Despite being a Canadian citizen, he found himself occasionally looked down upon or spoken down to due to the colour of his skin. Many soldiers apparently too fixated on his face to recognize the Canadian ID on his chest. Being shouted at, having his bed kicked at night and a flashlight shone in his face in the early morning was just some of the ignorance he had to endure. Sometimes the lame response was “Well you know what the enemy looks like.”
Some people have spent six months in Afghanistan and come back with stories to tell. This Trinidadian Canadian spent three years, most of it in a tent filled with farting, snoring men. This is his story from fog filled tents to waking up to the sound of bombs to watching a friend’s body parts shovelled into a garbage bag after a suicide bombing.
Contrary to popular belief, Veersen Bhoolai never worked in the kitchen.
A bird’s eye view of life, love and bacchanal in the Caribbean – the likes you have never read before.
Sunil “Sunny” Darsan seems to have been born into the idyllic family but all he wants to do is escape. His family’s legacy is impressive: a grandfather who is a rags to riches icon and owner of the largest plantation in Trinidad and his parents who are the first Trinidadian couple to graduate as lawyers.
This is a family that seems to have it all — wealth, power and a renowned family name. However, like all families, this one has its secrets.
When Sunny’s parents divorce and his grandfather dies, his father, Vijay, is left the plantation. Vijay’s natural instincts come out as he shirks his paternal duties and pursues his major interests: womanizing and gambling. Sunny’s mother struggles to keep him and his sister, Leila, clothed and fed while their father gambles and parties. Unfortunately, she can only protect them from so much and when Sunny and Leila visit their father at the plantation for a holiday, it’s the end of their innocence. Sunny finds himself on a path of discovery of a painful secret that will affect him and his sister for the rest of their lives. Amidst the challenges of his childhood and emerging manhood, Sunny tries to survive, desperately searching for an avenue of escape from the dysfunction that is his life.
Trials and Tribulations offers a window into life on the tropical island of Trinidad from the suburbs of Port of Spain to the cocoa plantations of the countryside, in addition to murder, deceit, adultery as well as racial tensions, all from the perspective an Indo-Trinidadian youth during the mid to late twentieth century.
Voted as one of the best new books on the Afghan war to read in 2022.
"I started it on a Sunday, skipped lunch and finished it in one day." ....Meredith, England.
"I don't read more than five minutes a day because I am recovering from a stroke and I get tired. But I finished your book in one day. It is a great book and I hope you get all the success you deserv." ... Alex, Germany
New York Book Festival 2022: Honourable Mention.
New England Book Festival 2021: Honourable Mention.
London Book Festival 2022: Honourable Mention.
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