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The Iconic Images (A Personal History)
Coming from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, my first iconic image was that of the Dodo. There is one in The Museum in Port Louis.
To my 8 year-old eyes, it seemed very real. When I first saw it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had blinked at me.
The next iconic image in my book is the Eiffel Tower, or La Tourréfel, as we
Mauritians called it. Pictures of La Tour were very common. You saw it in shops, in people’s homes. Obviously it was the ambition of everyone of us to see it some day.
The Muslims among us would probably have preferred the Ka-aba in Mecca.
I remember The Table Mountain making a big impression on me, both because of its name, and its shape.
With our Indian heritage, we often saw The Taj Mahal, in coloured posters, or in celluloid, alabaster, or later in plastic. Later, however, we began finding out
