Arvin Ajai Kant says he has chosen to contest the elections under the National Federation Party because he wants to bring back the Fiji of the past, where people of all races lived and mingled together.
He said he remembered growing up in Olosara, Sigatoka, where he used to share food cooked by his mother with iTaukei children from nearby villages, underneath a mango tree near their home.
“We need to go back to that Fiji, where people from different races lived together in harmony,” the 57-year-old said.
“I am so blessed to be brought up in the 1970s, technology was not advanced back them, but people shared a bond which cannot be not be seen today.
“My mother used to cook a big pot of dhal and rice and we would share this with the iTaukei students from nearby villages of Malevu and Korotogo.
“We were very poor, I was brought up on a sugarcane farm but we were content with life because of the bond we shared with other people.”
Mr Kant said being brought up poor taught him to appreciate life and it made him understand that nothing came easy.
“Everything I have achieved in life was through sheer hard work and perseverance.”
Mr Kant received his primary and secondary education in Sigatoka. He worked for 15 years in the tourism industry and became general manager for the Lautoka Hotel and general manager for Nukubalavu Adventure Dive Centre Resort in Kadavu.
He also worked at the Fijian Resort for 10 years as head of department for Stores and Cost Controlling and he was a lecturer at FIT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism at Nasese Campus, Suva, and the New Zealand Pacific Training Center.
Mr Kant joined the Education Ministry as head of technical vocation education and training (TVET).
He also taught at the Korovuto College, Nadi College, Sabeto College and Technical College of Fiji, Nadi campus.
In 2015, Mr Kant joined the Fiji Technical College in Nadi as head of school of hospitality and tourism in the department of cookery and bakery.
“Teaching is a noble profession. You need to have so much patience because you never know what your students have been through in life.”
He lives with his wife in Olosara, Sigatoka, while his two children now reside overseas.
