Prospect woman shares her journey

PROSPECT is what many would call a pit stop along the Mahaica road. A farming community, the village covers little over a mile.
A quiet and easy-going place, there is not much to talk about in the village. But among the rice fields, tractors, and grazing cattle, Savitri Jorree’s home and business stand out. More commonly known as Mala, she is among the few small business owners in the community and owns the only snackette for quite a few miles. The Pepperpot Magazine sat down with Mala at her Prospect home, where she shared her journey of entrepreneurship, marriage, and motherhood.

The village of Windsor Forest is a long way from the farmlands of Prospect. Mala was born many miles away in Region Three, Windsor Forest, a quiet little community that looks out on the water. Mala remembers her life then as quiet and filled with all the simple joys of early childhood.

As she reminisced about her childhood, Mala shared, “In our days, it was different. We did not have all these kinds of things, like phones. It was not so modernised. It was basically school and home. I grew up [and] went to Windsor Forest School. From there, I wrote my Common Entrance exams and passed, going to Christ Church Secondary.”

The peaceful carelessness of her childhood ended soon after high school, as Mala explained. She met her husband at just 17, and the pair were married soon after. Contrary to meeting through friends or on their way home, Mala and her husband were an arranged match. The two were led to each other through family members who simply thought they would be a nice pair. As Mala stated, “I got married during the process of just finishing school. I was just around seventeen.”

After getting married, the newlyweds moved to the village of Prospect. The move was different but welcomed, as Mala said. Prospect was and still is a peaceful place and presented a tranquillity that she has learned to appreciate.

Today, Mala is happily married and the owner of a growing business. She has overcome countless challenges life has thrown at her in her fifty-one years. Mala says she has learned plenty throughout her journey and is determined to teach her daughters. The one thing she would tell her two grown daughters, however, is to get married for love.

Mala expressed the value of choice and learning to love someone rather than fall in love. As she shared, “For now, I would tell my daughters, find who you want and fall in love. Because you want them to know. Because I didn’t have that part in my life. I didn’t have the part where I had to fall in love. So I wanted to experience it. Because if you fall in love with them, you have a choice. You stay with them, and you live. You go deeper into the relationship. You can make a stop right then. So then you have a choice.”

She further added, “Mind you, in marriage, you have a choice too. But then remember, you’re already married. You have a commitment. In a relationship, you don’t have a commitment. So you can say, ‘Hey, that’s it, I can’t stand you, you can’t stand me.’ But in marriage, it all depends on how you take it. If you want to dedicate yourself.” And Mala has truly dedicated herself to her family and, more recently, her business.

As a young mother, Mala and her husband faced financial difficulties like many new couples. Mala sought to help her family and began searching for new ways to contribute, among them farming. As she shared, “I planted callaloo for a couple of years. There was an old man next door who used to set a board. He would take my produce and sell it, bringing back the money.”

Mala recounted one of the most trying periods of her life: her pregnancy. As she explained, her business began as a way to provide for her children. “I sold pastries for a couple of years. At the same time, my daughter was going to UG. I used to sell on the road, come home, go pick her up at UG in the night, and come back.” Mala admitted that initially, she had doubts about starting a business but eventually decided to take the leap of faith.

As she shared, “I was wondering what business I was going to do here because it’s not a populated area. I was like, if I make a socket, I can make a business. I built a little thing out on the road. I started to do eggballs to see if that was going to work. Then I realised a business could do well here.” In the last three years, Mala’s business has grown, as has her supporter base, with D and M Snackette becoming a well-known name.

Mala’s attitude towards business is similar to her approach to life, with quiet and unsung determination. As she shared, business is about contentment and going with the flow. “In any business, there are some days that are not good and some days that are good. And it is a challenge, but it’s all about how you take it.”