International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), August 24th, 2008

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), August 24th, 2008 Voice of the International Indian Diaspora http://www.jahajeed esi.com/   Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora Editor: Deosaran Bisnath http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com http://deosaranbisnath.wordpress.com/ http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/ http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?act=idx   Our peace of mind increases in spite of suffering; we become braver and more enterprising; we understand more clearly the difference between what is everlasting and what is not; we learn how to distinguish between what is our duty and what is not. Our pride melts away and we become humble. Our worldly attachments diminish and, likewise,  the evil within us diminishes from day to day. -Mahatma Gandhi       AGAINST THE ODDS: Shiva Chakan by Carolyn Kissoon, http://www.trinidadexpress.com Shiva Chakan, who is stricken with diabetes, wants to become a paediatric diabetologist. And by the looks of it, the 16-year-old is well on his way to achieving his dreams. Shiva, who’s most prized possession, an iPod media player, was stolen at a diabetic camp last weekend, was among scores of secondary school pupils who received their CXC Ordinary Level results yesterday. For each of the eight subjects he wrote, Shiva, who attends Presentation College, San Fernando, TRINIDAD, received grade ones. “I was elated when I got my results, I worked really hard and I knew I would do well but I did not expect this,” he said. Shiva, who lives with his family at Ste Madeleine, Trinidad, said since he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last year and he began studying on how the disease affected children. “And I want to be able to do something to help other children, because I know what they are going through,” he said. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article?id=161367107   NAYA ZAMANA by Guyana Dharmic Sabha  President Bharrat Jagdeo Saturday evening, just before the staging of ‘Naya Zamana’- an evening of classical Indian dances at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), congratulated the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha for organising the event and for the organisation’s creativity and persistence in assisting to promote the Indian culture over the years. Reminding the large audience at the event about the struggles of our Indian ancestors who survived near slave-like conditions during the colonial era, President Jagdeo said they were successful in carving out a position for those who followed. “The colonial authorities consistently tried to dehumanise the people who came here by changing their religion, their language and their art forms, because they saw that as a way of controlling them. But they did not succeed; so we have today, this wonderful culture that they have contributed to this land and that has become part of the Guyanese culture,” he said. Warwick University honours Yesu Persaud with Doctorate Dr. Yesu Persaud (left), President of GOPIO GUYANA “An exemplary Guyanese whom a lot can be learnt from” Hans Barrow “No one can take away that he is an example for all who would wish to walk in his footsteps” Major General (rtd) Joe Singh “A splendid example of progress from poverty to stellar achievements” Professor David Dabydeen Scores of dignitaries and eminent entrepreneurs turned out at Le Meridien Pegasus hotel, Georgetown, GUYANA,  to honour Dr. Yesu Persaud who was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate for honourable causes by the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. The University only bestows the honour on some 10 persons each year out of a field of literally hundreds of individuals worldwide.   Professor David Dabydeen, who chaired the proceedings, noted that Dr. Persaud’s beginning was very humble as he started working in the canefields of Guyana. He, however, pointed out that despite his modest foundation, he has served in a number of eminent positions which include Chairman of Demerara Distillers, Founder and Chairman of Demerara Bank, Chairman of the Trust Company Guyana Limited, Chairman of the Institute of Private Enterprise and Development (IPED) and Chairman of the Private Sector Commission of Guyana. He also served as President of the Guyana Manufacturers Association, Vice President of the West Indies Rum and Spirits Association, and a member of the Advisory Group to the Caribbean’s Chief Trade Negotiator, Sir Shridath Ramphal, on CARICOM international negotiations. He has also been an Associate Fellow of the University of Warwick’s Centre for Caribbean Studies for the last 10 years. “Yesu Persaud is a splendid example of progress from poverty to stellar achievements,” said Dabydeen. Dr Persaud is one of Guyana’s leading businessmen and philanthropists who is renowned for his support of human rights, his outstanding contributions in business and Indian history and culture, and his role at conceiving the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED). “His notion of helping people to help themselves is the most effective way of eradicating poverty.” Dr Persaud is the recipient of several international and national awards including the Gandhi Organisation Plaque for his contribution to promoting Indian culture in Guyana, the Cacique’s Crown of Honour for the development of new industries in Guyana in 1983, and the Glory of India Award and Certificate of Excellence by the India International Friendship Society in 2005. In 2006 India honoured him with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman for his outstanding contributions in business and Indian history and culture. Dr Persaud is a founding member of Guyana’s Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) which was later converted into the Indian Commemoration Trust, and he is single-handedly responsible for creating the Monument Garden which marks the arrival of the first batch of Indian indentured labourers to Guyana in 1838. Dr Persaud was described by many of his friends and colleagues last evening as a humble man who did not disrespect or discriminate. He was described as an open individual who would greet anyone on the social ladder from top to bottom and did not disparage. “He is one of the persons who never hesitated to allow a person to realize their fullest potential.” Current Chairman of IPED, Dr Leslie Chin noted that it was because of the vision of Dr Persaud that IPED was formulated and one of the values he instilled at that organsisation was the value of financial stability for all. Bishop Randolph George described Dr Persaud as a man of outstanding character. “We ought to be thankful as a country for people like Persaud.” Hans Barrow told the gathering that Dr Persuad was an exemplary Guyanese whom a lot could be learnt from. Meanwhile, Major General (rtd) Joe Singh noted that the distinguished persons in the audience were testimony to the depth of Dr Persaud. He added that Dr Persaud was a man who never made age a factor and gave unselfishly of his time. “No one can take away that he is an example for all who would wish to walk in his footsteps.” Singh also noted that it was fitting for Dr Persaud to be honoured while he was alive and urged that it be done in more cases for people who have served the country faithfully and unselfishly. Dr Persaud, in expressing appreciation for the award and compliments bestowed on him, said that he was proud of his humble beginnings and that he learnt “from a young age to respect all, love all and hate none irrespective of who they are, given that we are all part of the human family…cease to do evil, learn to do good given that what you sow you reap.” According to Dr Persaud, a person is what he/she makes themselves and humility would take an individual a far way. He added that one of his life’s philosophies was to “do your best and nothing but the best.” Dr Persaud acknowledged that a project that he was particularly proud of is IPED, which gives persons an opportunity to own their own business, and it was his tribute to Guyana. He estimated that IPED has been responsible for the establishment of some 40,000 businesses and the creation of some 50,000 jobs. In offering a bit of advice, Dr. Persaud said that nothing happens if you don’t make it happen given that God has blessed “us all with faculties (brain) and we must use it.” He added that if all was to contribute to society it would be a better place. Dr Persaud was also adamant that there was no reason for this to be a poor country since the country is blessed with an abundance of resources. He noted that what needs to be accomplished is the putting aside of the division that exists in the country. “If we can come together we can transform the nation….we will prosper.” Dr Persaud is currently working on his autobiography. http://www.kaieteurnews.com/?p=5052 From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize – THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS by Karan Chand Karan Chand is a Guyanese living and teaching for the past 19 years in Belize  City, Belize. This book is on the list for Literature at two high schools in Belize and others are now considering it to be included as an additional text. From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS  is available from the author – E-mail  kchand16@hotmail. com
Indians in America: Before and after Attaining Citizenship Rights By Inder Singh, President of GOPIO International Immigrants from India started coming to the United States of America at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of them worked at menial jobs, lived in appalling conditions and in crumbling structures. Except a few, all were single, could not bring a spouse from India nor allowed to marry an American. For forty five years they lived in the shadows of American society. After a long struggle, in 1946 they got the right to US citizenship. Thereafter, they could buy property, get a job commensurate with their qualifications, marry a person of their choice, and were free to travel and visit India, the country of their birth. Indian nationals had lived for years in a free country without freedom. However, after Indian nationals obtained political rights, there has been a dramatic change in Indian community’s contributions to the country they have adopted as their home. The first part of this article describes the hardships, hostility, humiliation and bigotry the early settlers encountered and their sacrifices, perseverance and tenacity that defied all odds, while they managed a sustained campaign for political rights in the country of their domicile and hope, the United States of America. The second part describes those immigrants who came after the grant of citizenship rights and the liberalization of US Immigration laws. They comprised of professionals, high-tech workers, students and sponsored relatives. Several made laudable contributions in various ways to the country they have adopted as their home and also contributed significantly to the resurgence of India. Beginning of Indian Immigration In 1897, Queen Victoria of England and the Empress of India, included a Sikh regiment from the Indian Army in her diamond jubilee celebrations. On the return journey, the soldiers were sent back to India via Canada. Most of these soldiers were originally farmers and were fascinated with the potential for farming opportunities. They dreamed of returning to Canada after retirement. And some of them did return. India and Canada were both part of the British Empire and Canada became the destination of choice for many emigrants from India. Emigration from India to the USA started as a trickle while many came from Canada from the porous borders with America. On April 5, 1899, four Punjabis who had worked in the British Royal Artillery in Hong Kong, landed in San Francisco and were allowed to stay in the United States by the US Immigration Service. The grant of permission for them was an encouraging signal for others to follow those four pioneers. MORE AT: http://gopiott.blogspot.com/2008/08/indians-in-america-before-and-after.html
Episodes of Indian Experience by Professor Kenneth Ramchand Professor Kenneth Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Emeritus of English (Colgate University), and currently, Associate Provost, The Academy at the University of Trinidad and Tobago for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs. http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html     I want to do a ballet on the Ganges: Hema Malini   Dubai, Aug 17 (IANS) Bringing the Ganges river and the issues surrounding it today onstage is the next big dream of veteran Bollywood actor and internationally acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer Hema Malini. ‘The next ballet I want to do is on our great river Ganges,’ Hema Malini told IANS in an interview here. ‘I have already made the script. I want to bring the Ganges on to the stage,’ she said. She explained that her new ballet on the Ganges would carry an environmental message. ‘It is a beautiful concept, you know. It starts with the mythological beginning (of the Ganges). But it goes into today’s time and issues associated with the river. An environmental message will be given,’ she said. Talking about her other works, Hema Malini was very enthusiastic about another ballet she has developed, called ‘Draupadi’. ‘I have 12 actors playing the roles of the Kauravas and Pandavas. I play the role of Draupadi. Our great epic ‘Mahabharata’ is then told from Draupadi’s point of view,’ she said.     Unity with Guyana and Suriname? Dear Editor, I am for integration but not with Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The reason is not ethnicity as some may be tempted to think but simply economics. What do these country have to bring to  this “political marriage” with Trinidad and Tobago?   A political union with Guyana and Suriname will have many more advantages. These are as follows:   1. Guyana and Suriname have vast acreages of land and a strong agricultural secotor that can become the breadbasket of the Caribbean, thus ensuring food security for the region. 2. Trinidad and Tobago’s abundance of diesel and gasolene can be provided to Guyana and Suriname at a subsidized price to boost agricultural production. 3.Guyana,  Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago have a common historical, cultural and political experience that can be built on. For example, in all three countries there are large numbers of Africans and East Indians that are familar with and share religious and cultural practices. 4.Eco-tourism is a major industry that can be explored in Guyana and Suriname. The Kaituer Falls , the rain forests and the vast rivers of Guyana  and Suriname are  a paradise for  naturalists. 5. Association with Surimane will provide markets for trade with the Dutch-speaking Caribbean and the Netherlands. 6.Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas can be used to assist Guyana and Suriname with its aluminium smelter production rather than the need to establish smelter plants in Trinidad. 7.Guyana has gold and other precious metals that can be exploited and traded in international market for precious foreign exchange. 9. The potential for wealth creation will give rise to a high standard of living, low inflation and neglible criminal activities including homicides. 10. Lastly, Trinidad and Tobago has Brian Lara while Guyana has Shivnarine Chanderpaul.    Trinidad and Tobago has nothing to gain by an association with those islands. The only solution to those three states is for them to apply to the UK for dependency status and if successful, they would be lucky to be part of the European Union, an economic power house. A unity with Guyana and Suriname is essential for Trinidad and Tobago if we are to think of our survival beyond 2012. If we don’t move speedily in that direction we may also have to apply to the UK for dependency status. D.H. Singh Chaguanas          Indian Indentured Immigration to Trinidad by Deosaran Bisnath, Editor, International Jahajee Journal President, GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago. Part 1 : Origin of The Coolie Slave Trade  http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com/2008/05/indian-indentured-immigration-to.html
NRI saga goes back over 2,500 years By Kul Bhushan For most of the new NRI generation, the Indian migration started about 60 years or 100 years at the most. But this saga goes back over 2,500 years ago much before Biblical times to distant shores of Africa, South-East Asia and the Far East. Considering that they travelled by sailboats into uncharted seas in voyages that took months to the Far East, it remains a humongous achievement. Most of the second NRI generation in the US and Britain traces its roots to their fathers who left their motherland after India became independent. Canada is an exception as sturdy Punjabi farmers settled there earlier around 1930s. NRIs in East and South Africa, Mauritius and the Caribbean go back to just over a century when their forefathers went abroad to work as labourers to build a railway in East Africa or work on sugar plantations. While Sri Lanka and Myanmar are just over the horizon for Indian seafarers, negotiating tricky straits and storms to land in Java, Sumatra, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali and the Philippines demonstrated their real test of skill and endurance over 2,500 years ago. Sailing west was relatively easy as the annual monsoon winds carried their sailboats from Kutch to the Gulf and then south to East Africa and a few months later, they returned as the winds changed into the opposite direction. “The diaspora of Indians in ancient times to the countries of South East Asia and the annals of those kingdoms by the Hindu colonists were quite unlike the later European ways of colonization,” writes Utpal K. Banerjee in his new book ‘Hindu Joy of Life’, “Among the European powers were the English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spaniards, all five of which acted with explicit support of home government and were accompanied by military forces to back them to forcibly impose supremacy over the people of other countries; mainly to exploit the resources of the colony and benefit their homeland.” The Indians, on the contrary, enriched the native populations by introducing the art of writing, high degree of culture, improved methods of cultivation, improved handicrafts and introduced new industries, claims Banerjee. “Indians went out of their country without any sort of backing of any of the Indian states,” he said. “Hindus left their motherland to settle abroad in colonies and not to make fortune and run back to motherland. It was diaspora in the truest sense, where the penetration of Hindu civilization, culture, languages in South East Asia took place so peacefully that the indigenous population never felt that their country had been taken over.” Here is a book that chronicles the 2,500 years of Indian settlement abroad in lucid terms in one of its chapters. This highly readable panorama of the Hindu way of life, as opposed to narrow religion described in dry, abstract terms, presents the full canvas of the arts and culture that endures in all NRI communities to this day. In full colour, it is an ide al introduction for the new NRI generation to learn about their heritage from their gods, scriptures to their fine arts, dance and music. The author writes with the experience of travels to almost all the countries with NRI populations and many more where he was sent to lecture on Indian art and culture. He scripts the NRI saga right up to the present day. He outlines how the British rulers channelled the recent waves of Indian settlement abroad. After the abolition of slavery, the planters needed farm workers and so they tapped the huge manpower resource of India for the sugar plantations of Jamaica, South Africa and Mauritius from UP and Bihar. They needed workers to build the Kenya Uganda Railway towards the end of the 19th century, so they sent them from Punjab. They needed farmers for the hostile lands of Canada and so Punjabi farmers were allowed in. After the Second World War, both Britain and the US needed factory workers, skilled professionals and admitted Indians in large numbers from 1960 onwards. The latest flow of Indian immigrants to the US, Britain and Canada came from east Africa in the 1960s to 1980s when the independent African governments wanted to provide jobs for their indigenous peoples. At the end of the last century, Indian IT workers went to fix the Millennium Bug in the computer systems followed by thousands of IT professionals. Wherever NRIs settled, they have prospered. As law-abiding citizens by and large, they have preserved enduring Indian values. And they have maintained their links with India from distant lands through their way of life. Banerjee pays NRIs a warm tribute by writing, “This is no mean achievement, in spite of the initial handicaps and owes a lot to the innate vitality of the Indian civilization.” In brief, India has always been ‘a soft super power’. A media consultant to a UN Agency, Kul Bhushan previously worked abroad as a newspaper editor and has travelled to over 55 countries. He lives in New Delhi and can be contacted at: kulbhushan2038@gmail.com
http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1011&Itemid=64
GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago a chapter of GOPIO International. P.O. BOX 2286, Chaguanas. TRINIDAD. The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) unequivocally and categorically reiterates that there is only one authorized GOPIO Chapter in Trinidad and Tobago, namely GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, with its leadership team that was installed on February 29, 2008 in Freeport, Trinidad. The executives of GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago include Deosaran Bisnath (President); Varsha Maharaj (Secretary); Oscar Ramoutar (Treasurer); Ena Maraj, PRO; Directors (Niranjan Bhaggan, Jaganath Seeram-Maharaj) ; and Youth Officers (Shivanie Ramcharitar, Sacha Mahabal and Avinash Sanu).   GOPIO International emphasizes that former GOPIO of Trinidad and Tobago chapter president Devant Maharaj does not function in any capacity in GOPIO International, any of its councils or chapters, and is not authorized to make any such representations on behalf of GOPIO Int’l or GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.    GOPIO is a secular, non-partisan, not-for-profit, international organization based in USA with chapters in various parts of the globe, representing the interests and aspirations of People of Indian Origin (PIOs), and promoting awareness and understanding of issues of concern — social, cultural, educational, economic, or political, to global NRI/PIO community.   GOPIO can be contacted: Inder Singh (President, GOPIO Int’l) at gopio-intl@sbcgloba l.net  or by tel +1-818-708-3885, Ashook Ramsaran (Sec General, GOPIO Int’l) at ramsaran@aol. com  or by tel +1-718-939-8194, Deosaran Bisnath (President, GOPIO of Trinidad & Tobago) at deobisnath@yahoo. com or by tel +1-868-687-7529 Become a GOPIO member: write to – GopioTT@gmail. com GOPIO on the NET: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/GopioTT/ http://gopiott. blogspot. com/ http://www.gopio. net http://gopio. com   Fiji to hold forum on elections The interim Attorney-General of Fiji says his country will hold its own forum to discuss future elections, but New Zealand is not invited. Fiji’s interim leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, refused to attend a Pacific Islands Forum in Niue this week. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says he did not want to explain why he backed away from a promised deadline for elections next year. But Fiji’s interim Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, says New Zealand blocked the Commodore from post-forum talks. He says Fiji has now invited the heads of the United Nations and the Commonwealth to its own forum on elections. Fijian leader Frank Bainimarama has issued a bold warning to the Pacific Forum nations – be wary of New Zealand and Australia. The so called “statement to the nation” is in response to the Forum’s ultimatum for Fiji to hold elections by March, or be suspended, after Commodore Bainimarama was a no-show at the talks in Niue. The self-appointed Fijian leader says New Zealand and Australia seem to have taken over the moral leadership of the Pacific region.     ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ HINDU WISDOM I was born from the nectar of immortality as the primordial horse and as Indra’s noble elephant. Among men, I am the king. Among weapons I am the thunderbolt. I am Kamadhuk, the cow that fulfills all desires; I am Kandarpa, the power of sex, and Vasuki, the king of snakes. -Bhagavad Gita 10:27-28  The ego is like a stick dividing water in two. It creates the impression that you are one and I am another. When the ego vanishes you will realize that Brahman is your own inner consciousness. -Ramakrishna Some realize the Self within them through the practice of meditation, some by the path of wisdom, and others by selfless service. Others may not know these paths; but hearing and following the instructions of an illumined teacher, they too go beyond death. -Bhagavad Gita 13:24-25   ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ FREE TIBET, NOW!! http://tibet97. blogspot. com/       Netherland: A Novel by Joseph O’Neill Chuck Ramkissoon, Trini self-mythologizing entrepreneur-gangster Review From Publishers Weekly Hans van den Broek, the Dutch-born narrator of O’Neill’s dense, intelligent novel, observes of his friend, Chuck Ramkissoon, a self-mythologizing entrepreneur-gangster, that he never quite believed that people would sooner not have their understanding of the world blown up, even by Chuck Ramkissoon. The image of one’s understanding of the world being blown up is poignant—this is Hans’s fate after 9/11. He and wife Rachel abandon their downtown loft, and, soon, Rachel leaves him behind at their temporary residence, the Chelsea Hotel, taking their son, Jake, back to London. Hans, an equities analyst, is at loose ends without Rachel, and in the two years he remains Rachel-less in New York City, he gets swept up by Chuck, a Trinidadian expatriate Hans meets at a cricket match. Chuck’s dream is to build a cricket stadium in Brooklyn; in the meantime, he operates as a factotum for a Russian gangster. The unlikely (and doomed from the novel’s outset) friendship rises and falls in tandem with Hans’s marriage, which falls and then, gradually, rises again. O’Neill (This Is the Life) offers an outsider’s view of New York bursting with wisdom, authenticity and a sobering jolt of realism. In Joseph O’Neill’s third novel, Netherland, there are two great love objects: the city of New York and the game of cricket. Hans van den Broek, the novel’s Dutch narrator, seeks solace in both the place and the sport after September 11, 2001, when he finds himself adrift in the city. We know he watched the destruction on television in the midtown office where he works, that the trauma that followed is the ostensible reason for his foundering marriage, and that the catastrophe forced him, his wife, Rachel, and young son, Jake, out of their Tribeca loft and into the Hotel Chelsea. When Rachel leaves for London with Jake, Hans slides into a state of depressed alienation, which is relieved, in part, by playing cricket in the city’s outer boroughs with like-minded comrades from the West Indies and Asia. On one of these excursions, Hans meets a Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon. This hyper-articulate, bamboozling entrepreneur with a grand dream of building an American cricket arena holds a steady if rather vague fascination for Hans, and the two fall into an unlikely friendship.   Excerpt from Netherland. The afternoon before I left London for New York—Rachel had flown out six weeks previously—I was in my cubicle at work, boxing up my possessions, when a senior vice-president at the bank, an Englishman in his fifties, came to wish me well. I was surprised; he worked in another part of the building and in another department, and we were known to each other only by sight. Nevertheless, he asked me in detail about where I intended to live (“Watts? Which block on Watts?”) and reminisced for several minutes about his loft on Wooster Street and his outings to the “original” Dean & DeLuca. He was doing nothing to hide his envy. “We won’t be gone for very long,” I said, playing down my good fortune. That was, in fact, the plan, conceived by my wife: to drop in on New York City for a year or three and then come back. “You say that now,” he said. “But New York’s a very hard place to leave. And once you do leave . . .” The S.V.P., smiling, said, “I still miss it, and I left twelve years ago.” It was my turn to smile—in part out of embarrassment, because he’d spoken with an American openness. “Well, we’ll see,” I said. “Yes,” he said. “You will.” His sureness irritated me, though principally he was pitiable—like one of those Petersburgians of yesteryear whose duties have washed him up on the wrong side of the Urals. But it turns out he was right, in a way. Now that I, too, have left that city, I find it hard to rid myself of the feeling that life carries a taint of aftermath. This last-mentioned word, somebody once told me, refers literally to a second mowing of grass in the same season. You might say, if you’re the type prone to general observations, that New York City insists on memory’s repetitive mower—on the sort of purposeful postmortem that has the effect, so one is told and forlornly hopes, of cutting the grassy past to manageable proportions. For it keeps growing back, of course. None of this means that I wish I were back there now; and naturally I’d like to believe that my own retrospection is in some way more important than the old S.V.P.’s, which, when I was exposed to it, seemed to amount to not much more than a cheap longing. But there’s no such thing as a cheap longing, I’m tempted to conclude these days, not even if you’re sobbing over a cracked fingernail. Who knows what happened to that fellow over there? Who knows what lay behind his story about shopping for balsamic vinegar? He made it sound like an elixir, the poor bastard. At any rate, for the first two years or so of my return to England, I did my best to look away from New York—where, after all, I’d been unhappy for the first time in my life. I didn’t go back there in person, and I didn’t wonder very often about what had become of a man named Chuck Ramkissoon, who’d been a friend during my final East Coast summer and had since, in the way of these things, become a transitory figure. Then, one evening in the spring of this year, 2006, Rachel and I are at home, in Highbury. She is absorbed by a story in the newspaper. I have already read it. It concerns a group of tribespeople that has emerged from the Amazon forest in Colombia. They are reportedly tired of the hard jungle life, although it’s noted they still like nothing better than to eat monkey, grilled and then boiled. A disturbing photograph of a boy gnawing at a blackened little skull illustrates this fact. The tribespeople have no idea of the existence of a host country named Colombia, and no idea, more hazardously, of diseases like the common cold or influenza, against which they have no natural defenses. “Hello,” Rachel says, “your tribe has come to light.” I’m still smiling when I answer the ringing phone. A New York Times reporter asks for Mr. van den Broek. The reporter says, “This is about Kham, ah, Khamraj Ramkissoon . . . ?” “Chuck,” I say, sitting down at the kitchen table. “It’s Chuck Ramkissoon.” She tells me that Chuck’s “remains” have been found in the Gowanus Canal. There were handcuffs around his wrists and evidently he was the victim of a murder. I don’t say anything. It seems to me this woman has told an obvious lie and that if I think about it long enough a rebuttal will come to me. Her voice says, “Did you know him well?” When I don’t answer, she says, “It says somewhere you were his business partner.” “That’s not accurate,” I say. “But you were in business together, right? That’s what my note says.” “No,” I say. “You’ve been misinformed. He was just a friend.” She says, “Oh—OK.” There is a tapping of a keyboard and a hiatus. “So—is there anything you can tell me about his milieu?” “His milieu?” I say, startled into correcting her mooing pronunciation. “Well, you know—who he hung out with, what kind of trouble he might have gotten himself into, any shady characters . . .” She adds with a faint laugh, “It is kind of unusual, what happened.” I realize that I’m upset, even angry. “Yes,” I finally say. “You have quite a story on your hands.”      The latest issue of the Indo-Caribbean Times can be accessed online at http://www.esnips.com/web/Indo-CaribbeanTimes        Corentyne High School Holds 70th Anniversary Gala in NYC By Vishnu Bisram The alumni of Corentyne High School – J C Chandisingh Secondary School (CHS—JCCSS) of Port Mourant, Guyana, celebrated its 70th Anniversary and Re-Union 2008 on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at the posh catering venue of Antun’s located in Queens Village, New York City, USA. The event was a well attended gala affair graced by the presence of a capacity crowd of 650 plus specially invited guests. Attendees were predominantly graduates, former teachers and principals of CHS—JCCSS and their respective spouses, friends and well wishers. Attendees came from Europe, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, several from the Caribbean countries, Guyana and from all over the USA. Special guests include Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, Hon. Bayney Karran of Washington, DC. Keynote Speaker was Jules Nathoo, a former teacher at CHS—JCCSS who now resides in Canada. Former CHS—JCCSS teacher and principal Jagdat P Deonarine attended as a VIP guest, along with his wife Elaine, a former student herself. Also in attendance: famous cricketer Joseph Solomon and wife Betty, as well as former teacher Sewcharran Gunraj, Dan Sukhu, Chetram Singh, Dr Mahendra Deonarine, Mr and Mrs Austin of the UK and Jane Baichu, one of the oldest surviving alumni – and several well known former teachers whose contributions are noteworthy. The Chairman of the 70th Anniversary and Re-Union 2008 Planning Committee was Ashook Ramsaran of the class of 1964, formerly of Bloomfield Village, Corentyne, now residing in USA. The MC for the event was Rishi Singh, graduate class of 1971 and former teacher at CHS—JCCSS, along with Co-MC Bibi Hydar, graduate of class of 1977. It was a grand affair and a very successful 70th Anniversary and Re-Union 2008 re-union event that brought together alumni and former teachers spanning several decades and from various parts of the world. In summary, it achieved its objectives with unmatched style and elegance. CONTINUED…. http://guyana1.blogspot.com/       V S NAIPAUL: A Tribute http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?showforum=56        Indians in the Virgin Islands Courtesy Lloyd Harradan Friday, August 22nd 2008 (Virgin Islands Daily News 22.08.2008] ST. THOMAS – While the distance between India and the Virgin Islands is thousands of miles, the local Indian community acts as a vital bridge between the two, Ajay Gondane, India’s deputy consul general, said Thursday. Gondane, who has more than 20 years with the Indian Foreign Service, arrived in the Virgin Islands today to meet with government and education officials and members of the Indian Association of the Virgin Islands, which comprises nearly 70 local businesses and 500 members. Gondane will address the membership tonight at the association’s 61th anniversary of India’s independence event at Marriott’s Frenchman’s Reef and Morningstar Beach Resort. Cultural dance, food, and dress showcase and celebrate Indian culture during the event. Gondane said he has been looking forward to his first visit to the Virgin Islands. He said it is important to establish and bolster links with the Indian community in the Virgin Islands and to let the community know that the consul general’s office supports them. “We want to ensure they are keeping their roots and connections with India,” he said. Gondane, who is based in New York, said he hopes to meet as many people and government officials as possible, and he has a meeting scheduled with Gov. John deJongh Jr. Gondane joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1985 and has worked in various positions in Indian embassies in Damascus, Baghdad, Vienna and Ankara. In 2006, Gondane was a visiting fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Centre in Washington D.C. He has published an analysis on terrorism in South Asia and two books on social development issues. India Association President Mulo Alwani said he is looking forward to Gondane’s visit. Someone from the consul general’s office always attends the association’s annual celebration. The India Association of the Virgin Islands aims to cultivate and celebrate Indian culture within the territory. Alwani said that for years, the members have committed themselves to improving the entire community by giving education scholarships and making donations to schools and medical facilities. “This is our home,” Alwani said. “We are part of this community.” The organization’s donations include: $100,000 pledge to Charlotte Amalie High School, $100,000 pledge to Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute, and $20,000 to Lockhart Elementary School. Since the late 1980s, the association has provided a total of $49,000 annual scholarships to students attending the University of the Virgin Islands. Education is very important, Alwani said. “No one can take away your education,” he said. “If you have an education you can go anywhere in the world and be successful.”       ‘Disillusioned’ Indians in SA want revival of Gandhi’s party   DURBAN: Prominent South African activist Fatima Meer has said revival of the Natal Indian Congress formed by Mahatma Gandhi can only help the Indian community that is feeling “marginalised” and “isolated” under the ruling ANC, which is grappling with infighting and corruption. The NIC was formed in 1894 by Gandhi to fight discrimination against Indians during the aparthied days and jointly worked with the African National Congress. It was dissolved after aparthied was abolished and ANC came to power in 1994. “This was a mistake the ANC had made. It disbanded the Congress and it took over the apartheid stooges,” Meer, herself an anti-aparthied leader who turns 80 on August 12, told in an interview at her home in Sydenham area here. Meer, whose parents had come from the Gujarat and who is a close family friend of ANC leader and anti-aparthied hero Nelson Mandela and his former wife Winnie, predicted the state of affairs within ANC would force “a great number of South Africans” not to vote for the party in May next year. “As a political party, the ANC was fine and totally acceptable but to organise better, the Indian people needed an organisation”, she said. Meer said the Indians had a very strong organisation in the Natal Indian Congress. “I wrote to Mr Mbeki soon after he became president in 1999 that it had been a tragedy that the ANC had asked the NIC to be disbanded. It was an organisation that stood by the ANC always,” she said. Meer said she favoured the revival of NIC because she believed a large percentage of the people of South Africa were disillusioned with the current divisions within the ANC, which is witnessing a bitter power struggle between President Thabo Mbeki and party chief Jacob Zuma.     Racial taunts spark protests by Indians in Malaysia KULA LUMPUR: About 500 angry ethic-Indians on Monday staged a protest outside a school demanding action against a teacher who allegedly hurled racial slurs against students from the community in western Malaysia’s Selangaon state. According to the police report, a woman history teacher had allegedly called Indian students in a Class four and five ‘Negro’, ‘black monkeys’ and other derogatory names. The crowd began gathering outside the Banting school’s main entrance near here at noon and staged a protest for two hours. The teacher had also allegedly said that the community members were stupid and prone to thievery, the Star daily reported on its website. The alleged incidents took place on July 17 and 22 when the teacher had allegedly beaten up some Indians students. A students also alleged in his report that the teacher had written the word ‘keling pariah’ on the board and lost her cool when the Indian students told her that they did not like being called names, it said. Coalition of Malaysian Indian NGOs secretary Gunaraj George, who was among the protesters, said such abuse would only breed hatred and racial polarisation in schools. “No one in his or her right frame of mind would have said these things. Given this, the best option would be for the teacher to be assigned to a desk job and not be allowed to be near youngsters anymore,” he said. Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong said the schoolteacher might be sacked if the allegations proved true. “The allegations were serious as no one was allowed to insult others, especially in a school environment,” said Wee, who was asked to comment. The ministry was awaiting an official report before taking any action, he added.     ‘Munnabhai’ inspires seminar on modern Gandhigiri   JOHANNESBURG: Bollywood film Lage Raho Munnabhai has inspired a slew of protests worldwide using Gandhian methods, such as people swamping officials with flowers. Now it’s the turn of the academics to discuss modern Gandhigiri. Mahatma Gandhi had led a march in South Africa in 1908 to protest a law asking all Indians and Chinese to carry registration certificates with them, and hundreds had publicly burnt such documents following him. On the centenary of that historic march, the Centre for Indian Studies (CISA) at the Witwatersrand University, Indian Consul-General Navdeep Suri and the Gandhi Centenary Committee Monday hosted a colloquium on The Bonfire of 1908: Passive Resistance Then and Now . The Mahatma’s great-granddaughter Kirti Menon headed the colloquium. P.K. Dutta of Delhi University, an expert on Indian popular culture, related how Gandhian ideas were now being revived in India in new ways. Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie from the University of the Western Cape, a granddaughter of Gandhi, spoke about a housing project next to a busy motorway in Cape Town that has resulted in a lot of social tensions there. She said that Gandhian strategies might have led to a different outcome. Rehana Ebrahim-Vally from the University of Pretoria shared views on how young Indian people in South Africa understand Gandhi’s ideals and how it relates or does not relate to their sense of being of Indian origin. Ari Sitas, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Crain Soudien of the University of Cape Town spoke about the relevance of Gandhian ideas to new movements that are trying to address globalisation. Sitas addressed the role of Gandhi in what he called “neo-Gandhians” in the anti-militaristic movements across the globe, while Crain referred to the African Renaissance led by South African President Thabo Mbeki and how Gandhian philosophies might have led to different outcomes in his attempts to bring about such a transformation. There were also presentations by Raymond Suttner of the University of South Africa and Goolam Vahed, professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, on how the African National Congress (ANC) grappled with some of the ideas of non-violence as opposed to the need for a violent struggle in South Africa. The colloquium ended with a poster presentation by struggle veteran Kantilal Naik, also attached to the host university, who said Gandhi’s philosophy was relevant during the five decades of struggle, and was even more relevant now, 14 years down the line of becoming a democratic nation. “We are now faced with other types of difficulties – crime, fraud, lies, arrogance, self-enrichment, economic meltdown, and rising poverty. What is there left for us, but to adopt Gandhi’s principles to bring about some sanity in our country?”   ‘Satyagraha is a contribution of S African Indians to the world’   JOHANNESBURG: Mahatma Gandhi might have been a just a footnote in history if it were not for the support of the South African Indian community that brought him in South Africa as a young lawyer and got him started on his now legendary struggle against oppression, according to South African Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan. “We all know and speak highly of Mahatma Gandhi, but very few people will ever give recognition to the fact that without the support of the Indian community in South Africa, the name Mahatma Gandhi would not even have been a footnote in history,” Jordan said. He was speaking at Saturday’s centenary celebrations of a historic event led by Gandhi at the Hamidia Mosque in Johannesburg. Hundreds of people including South African dignitaries and India’s Culture and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni joined him in burning copies of the registration certificates that all people of Indian and Chinese descent were required to carry under a law in 1908. Gandhi’s protest march against it is widely seen as one of the first acts of his philosophy of Satyagraha. “(Gandhi’s) experiments in Satyagraha; his experiments in harnessing non-violence as a power of truth and bearing witness against oppression, proved successful because the Mahatma’s call received a response from the Indian community of this country,” Jordan said to a loud applause from the hundreds of locals, expatriates and children who had gathered outside the mosque for the first in a series of events to mark the centenary. “So Satyagraha is the singular contribution that South Africans of Indian descent have made to the history of not only South Africa and India, but many other parts of the world.” Jordan said it should never be forgotten the rallying to Gandhi’s call by the thousands of Indian South Africans had been: “There is a tendency, especially today, to relegate the role of various communities and individuals to the background. That is very wrong; it is an injustice; and I think it is a misrepresentation of the truth.” He said the rejection of the registration papers by the Indian community at that time had proved to the world that an oppressive law could be made unworkable. “That was a lesson that has gone throughout the world and has informed every struggle in the 20th century. In honouring Gandhiji, we must also honour and recognise the singular contribution made by this community, to the struggle for liberation here and in every other part of the world.”   Indian overseas Congress honours NRIs on I-Day LONDON: A leading solicitor, a broadcaster and a social activist were among the four NRIs honoured here by the overseas wing of the Indian National Congress, for their outstanding contribution to society, on the occasion of India’s 62nd Independence Day. Solicitor Hari Singh, poet and broadcaster at Kismat Radio Sathi Ludianvi, social activist and prominent leader of the Conservative party, Anita Kapoor and eminent doctor Dharmendra Tripathi were felicitated by India’s Acting High Commissioner to UK Asoke Mukerji here last night, at event organised by the Indian Overseas Congress (UK). Balwant Kapoor, freedom fighter and President of the IOC (UK) said NRIs were proud of India’s achievements under the leadership of Manmohan Singh, emphasising that economic growth must be all-inclusive and effective steps should be taken to bridge the gulf between rich and the poor. Brahm Mahindra, MLA and former cabinet minister of Punjab, who was a special guest on the occasion, said the Indo-US nuclear deal would go a long way in making India strong economically. He also hailed the strong stand taking by India in safeguarding the interest of farmers at the WTO talks. In a message, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complimented NRIs for their efforts to be good citizens of their adopted countries, while keeping alive their links with India. In her message, Sonia Gandhi, Congress President and chairperson of India’s ruling coalition said, “We are making India into a strong country, strong in its independence, strong in the defence of its territory and integrity, strong in its economy, strong in its commitment to the values of secularism.”     Inspiration http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?showforum=10 Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya This is the birthday of Lord Krishna, the eighth Divine Incarnation. It falls on the 8th day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September). This is one of the greatest of all Hindu festivals. Lord Krishna was born at midnight. A twenty-four hour fast is observed on this day, which is broken at midnight. Temples are decorated for the occasion. Kirtans are sung, bells are rung, the conch is blown, and Sanskrit hymns are recited in praise of Lord Krishna. At Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, special spiritual gatherings are organised at this time. Pilgrims from all over India attend these festive gatherings. Sri Krishna is the ocean of bliss. His soul-stirring Lilas, which are the wonder of wonders, are its waves. The honeyed music of His flute attracts the minds of His devotees from all three regions. His unequalled and unsurpassed wealth of beauty amazes the animate and the inanimate beings. He adorns His friends with His incomparable love. If you cannot read the whole of the Srimad Bhagavatam during these days, at least you should recite the following four most important verses from the book. The leading two verses and the closing verse are the prologue and the epilogue respectively: “Hear from Me the most secret knowledge coupled with the essential experience and its component parts. “May you realise by My Grace, the knowledge of Myself and what form, qualities and actions I am endowed with. 1. “Before creation I alone existed. There was nothing, neither existence nor non-existence. I am that which remains after dissolution. 2. “Understand that to be Maya or illusion which is devoid of any purpose, which is not to be found in the Self and which is unreal like light and darkness. 3. “As the primary elements are amalgamated, with one another and also separate from one another at the same time, so I pervade the whole universe and am also separate from it. 4. “The aspirant should, by the method of positive and negative, know that thing which exists always and everywhere. May the blessings of Lord Krishna and Sri Radha be upon you all!   – SWAMI SIVANANDA http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CaribbeanH indus/ http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10    Gorgeous Farnley lass Janeena Basra has sparked a cross-border battle of beauty after scooping a title in Cheshire. Janeena Basra sparks Miss England beauty battle The stunning 23-year old has just won a place in the final of the Miss England contest after winning the regional Miss Halton Pride contest. If she wins that, the brainy beauty – who has two University degrees – will go on to represent her country in the Miss World pageant later this year. However as a Leeds native triumphing on the other side of the pennines, Janeena’s victory has angered some people who believe a local girl should have won. Miffed Halton folk have flooded a local website with comments such as “Where is the justice in a girl from Leeds being crowned?” and “How is she going to fulfil her duties as Miss Halton Pride?”  Another irate local said bluntly: “I bet the new Miss Halton had never even heard of the place until a few weeks a go. Disgraceful!”   WORD PLAY juju \JOO-joo\, noun: 1. An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers. 2. The power associated with a juju. [David] Robinson, sounding confident and sure, said that the time for juju and magic dust had passed. ‘To be honest with you, I think it’s beyond that’, he said. ‘It’s very hard to come up with magic at the end’. – “Knicks Find There’s No Place Like Home”, New York Times, June 22, 1999 ‘You ever heard of juju?’ Skyler shook his head. ‘Magic. You talk about this and it’ll be the last talkin’ you do. You’ll just open your mouth and nothin’ will come out’. – John Darnton, The Experiment We are told, for example, of the Edo youngster, apparently both Christian and traditionally African in his beliefs, who was heard to mutter ‘S.M.O.G.’ over and over when he and his companions were threatened by ‘bad juju’. When questioned he replied, ”Have you never heard of it? It stands for Save Me O God. When you are really in a hurry, it is quickest to use the initials’. – “The Spirits And The African Boy”, New York Times, October 10, 1982 On any terminal she is using, a co-worker puts up a sign proclaiming, ‘Bad karma go away, come again another day’. When she was pregnant, she said, she crashed her computer twice as often — she attributes that to a double whammy of woo-woo juju. – “Can a Hard Drive Smell Fear?”, New York Times, May 21, 1998 Juju is of West African origin, akin to Hausa djudju, fetish, evil spirit        ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ ‘jahaj’ = ship; ‘desi’ = Indian ‘JahajeeDesi’ = The Indians who crossed the Kala Pani by ship, the Indentured Indian Immigrants, and their descendants. http://www.JahajeeD esi.com For Free Subscription to this Newsletter, or to Join the JahajeeDesi YAHOO Group, or to contribute News, Letters, Essays, Reviews, Send Mail to:  CCDSJ@yahoo. com Subscription Problems? Unsubscribe? Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo.com < strong> http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?act=idx http://deosaranbisnath.wordpress.com

IJJ, July 27th 2008: TANTRA – Sex Is Not A Sin; BAJAN ANTI-INDIAN HATE & RACISM; SATYAJIT RAY; The Indianisation of cricket

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), July 27th, 2008 Voice of the International Indian Diaspora http://www.jahajeed esi.com/ Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora Editor: Deosaran Bisnath http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot. com http://deosaranbisn ath.wordpress. com/ http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/ http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? act=idx I see God walking in every human form. When I meet different people, I say to myself, “God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous.” Sri Ramakrishna THE CHESS PLAYERS by Satyajit Ray Ray’s first film in a language other than Bengali – here English, Urdu and Hindi – is a gently humorous, acutely observed satire of colonialism and self absorption. Using the powerful symbolism of the chess games of two nobles to make an acute commentary on Anglo-Indian relations in Victorian times, Ray notes that no matter who may win or lose, board and pieces stay exactly the same. Review by Andrew Robinson “It’s a very, very complex mixed kind of thing, the entire British heritage in India”, Satyajit Ray told me after a pregnant pause when I interviewed him at length for a biography in the 1980s. “I’m thankful for the fact that at least I’m familiar with both cultures and it gives me a very much stronger footing as a film-maker, but I’m also aware of all the dirty things that were being done. I really don’t know how I feel about it.” The opportunity to probe some of these deep equivocations in himself drew Ray to tackle a film—The Chess Players (Shatranj ke Khilari)—that differs in certain important respects from all his other 30 or more feature films, beginning with the Apu Trilogy of the 1950s. For a start, The Chess Players was easily Ray’s most expensive film, employing stars of the Bombay cinema (notably Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi and Amitabh Bachchan as a narrator) and even of western cinema (Richard Attenborough) , large Mughal-style sets and exotic location shooting (Lucknow and Rajasthan). In addition, it was Ray’s first and only feature to venture into a language—Urdu— other than Bengali. It was also his only film in which Islamic culture played a major role. Most important of all, the film was a historical drama—set during the East India Company’s annexation of Oudh in 1856, the year before the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny—which dealt directly with the Raj. Although the influence of the British is felt in most of Ray’s films in subtle ways, and he made several films set in the 19th century, The Chess Players is the only one where the Raj and its officials occupy centre stage. Given its world premiere at the London Film Festival in 1977, The Chess Players was the first adult film about the Raj. Today, after Gandhi, Heat and Dust, The Jewel in the Crown, A Passage to India and many other Raj-related films, Ray’s film remains by far the most sophisticated portrayal of this particular clash of cultures. As the Nobel laureate VS Naipaul remarked of the film, “It is like a Shakespeare scene. Only 300 words are spoken but goodness!—terrific things happen.” Satyjit Ray’s films include the Apu Trilogy, The Music Room, Charulata, Days and Nights in the Forest, The Chess Players, and The Stranger. He also made comedies, musical fantasies, detective films, and documentaries. He was an exceptionally versatile artist who won almost every major prize in cinema, including a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1992. GOPIO TRINIDAD & TOBAGO meets the President of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, His Excellency, Professor George Maxwell Rochards Left to right: Ms. Sacha Mahabal, Assistant Secretary; Mr. Oscar Ramoutar, Treasurer; Mr. Deosaran Bisnath, President; Professor George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago; Ms. Ena Maraj, PRO; Ms. Shivanie Ramcharitar, Youth Officer; Dr. Vijay Ramlal Rai, Head of Culture Committee… …. Continued http://gopiott. blogspot. com/2008/ 07/gopio- trinidad- tobago-pays- courtesy. html SOUTH AFRICA sacks Indian-origin provincial premier DURBAN: South Africa’s only Indian-origin provincial premier has been sacked by the ruling ANC, apparently falling prey to the bitter power-struggle between President Thabo Mbeki and party chief Jacob Zuma. A close associate of Mbeki, Premier of the Western Cape province Ebrahim Rassool announced his resignation at a meeting attended by the chairperson of the African National Congress Baleka Mbete in Cape Town.  Appointed as the Premier in 2003 by President Thabo Mbeki, Rassool, whose grand-parents came to South Africa from Gujarat, said that he had served in his position honestly and effectively and was sad to step down. Rassool has also resigned from the Cape provincial legislature. Mbete, also Speaker of Parliament, told reporters that Rassool was asked to resign for “political reasons” and to prepare for the general elections in 2009.
From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS by Karan Chand Karan Chand is a Guyanese living and teaching for the past 19 years in Belize City, Belize. This book is on the list for Literature at two high schools in Belize and others are now considering it to be included as an additional text. From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize – THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS is available from the author – E-mail kchand16@hotmail. com INDIAN GOVT: Lord Rama destroyed the bridge STAYED FOR NOW: The Sethusamundram project has been stayed by SC following protests by Hindu groups. New Delhi: The Central government on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it is going ahead with the contentious Sethusamudram Project. In an affidavit filed before the SC, the Centre said that it was not destroying the Ram Sethu as no such bridge existed. Lord Ram himself had destroyed the bridge with a magical bow, the Centre said in the affidavit, quoting from the Tamil Kamban Ramayan . BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told CNN-IBN, “This is a deliberate attempt to play around with Hindu sentiments. They are now saying Lord Ram destroyed the Setu when earlier they had said that Lord Ram did not even exist and that Tulsi Ramayana and Valmiki Ramayana had no historical evidence or scientific proof to corroborate their statements.” Episodes of Indian Experience by Professor Kenneth Ramchand Professor Kenneth Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Emeritus of English (Colgate University), and currently, Associate Provost, The Academy at the University of Trinidad and Tobago for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs. http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot. com/ The Indianisation of cricket The concentration of power in the hands of the BCCI is not necessarily bad, but India should understand that it is one thing to have earned the right to wield unipolar power, another to demonstrate deserving it When the Cold War abruptly thawed almost 20 years ago, political strategists launched the expression “unipolar world” to describe global realpolitik in which the United States was the solitary superpower. In the last five years cricket has realigned to reflect a similar world order. Where it was once ritually complained that the ICC is weak, inconsistent, reactive, lacking in leadership, we now know exactly what that body will do on every issue before it: what India wishes. Sometimes not exactly; sometimes not without qualification. But in the main, no significant motion can advance without India’s patronage, and nothing to which India is resistant has a hope in hell. On India’s nod, the ICC can even change the result of Test matches. Hell, why play Test matches at all? Let’s just decide them by vote at the ICC! In one sense at least, a unipolar ICC is long overdue. India has always been the most populous, and arguably also the most passionate, of cricket nations. But its house has commonly been divided, and its stock abroad poor. In Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, we saw little of Indian teams – frustratingly little, for they were a purist’s delight to watch. While the West Indies seemed to tour every other summer, Australians were denied a Sachin Tendulkar Test innings for almost eight years. The reason? India were not perceived as sufficiently bankable – and this is worth remembering lest it be imagined that the BCCI somehow introduced the evils of money to a cricket world of prelapsarian innocence. The reasons for India’s belated eminence are not far to seek either. Its democracy is stable, its economy vital, its political and media elite rich beyond the dreams of avarice; they covet cultural clout due their wealth. I suspect it is no longer correct to talk about the “globalisation” of cricket; rather is the game being “Indianised” , subordinated to Indian commercial agendas. That is to say, the emphasis has moved from taking the game to new frontiers for its benefit and furtherance, but to spreading the sphere of the BCCI’s influence and providing content for the consumption of its domestic market. And in a lot of ways this is actually no big deal. There are worse cultural values to be pervaded by; and, well, most commercial agendas are alike, no matter where they’re from, and India’s commercial sector is no more rapacious and vulgar than those of other countries. At its best, in fact, the BCCI has shown an élan and imagination that other boards, and other sporting bodies, must eye enviously. At its worst, however, it exhibits the characteristics of chip-on-the- shoulder superpower and insatiable monopoly capitalist.. .. CONTINUED: http://content- wi.cricinfo. com/magazine/ content/current/ story/361499. html Indian Indentured Immigration to Trinidad by Deosaran Bisnath, Editor, International Jahajee Journal President, GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago. Part 1 : Origin of The Coolie Slave Trade http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot.com/ ANTI-INDIAN HATE & RACISM IN BARBADOS
Commentary: Bajans, Guyanese and the politics of hate
Published on Friday, July 25, 2008
By Dr Randy Persaud It is finally happening. Guyanese immigrants in Barbados are now being murdered. The attack in which Christopher Griffith was killed, and Seelochanie Samuels wounded, was not the work of bandits. It was an anti- immigrant political killing. For many Guyanese this might be a surprise, because, after all, we are all West Indians, and on top of that, Barbados has this image as an Island Paradise. Political violence is not supposed to happen there. Barbados is supposed to be the Singapore of the Caribbean – highly globalized, high per capita GDP, and outranked only by the OECD countries in the UNDP’s Human Development Index. But something ominous and enormously complicated is occurring in Barbados. There is an unbelievable level of hatred against Guyanese in general and Indo-Guyanese in particular. The magnitude and depth of hatred against the Guyanese is now bordering on neo-fascism. In this short article I am arguing that the developments in Barbados have direct linkages to the campaign to construct the Government of Guyana as racist. By ‘construct’ I mean that in contradistinction to objective reality, a platoon of opposition elements have been using various media (TV, daily columns, letters to the editor, blogs etc) to give the impression that the PPP government is deliberately victimizing the Afro-Guyanese population.. . CONTINUED HERE: http://guyana1. blogspot. com/ Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji Publisher: Front Street (March 2008) ISBN-10: 1932425934 ISBN-13: 978-1932425932 A breathtaking account of one girl’s determination to triumph over a devastating historical event. In Uganda in 1972, President Idi Amin, also known as the Last King of Scotland, announces that foreign Indians must be “weeded” out of Uganda in ninety days. Fifteen-year- old Sabine’s life is changed forever. The president’s message, broadcast on the radio every day, becomes Sabine’s “countdown monster,” and it follows her through days of terror. Sabine’s father is convinced that, as Ugandan citizens, their family will be unaffected, but her mother insists it’s too dangerous to stay. When her beloved uncle disappears and her best friend abandons her, Sabine begins to understand her mother’s fears. She becomes desperate to leave, but Bapa, her grandfather, refuses to accompany her. How can she leave him, and where will her family go to begin a new life? Hear the author read excerpts in her own words: Child of Dandelions.mp3 “Drawn in part from the veteran author’s own experiences, this deeply felt tale takes readers to 1972 Uganda where, shortly after coming to power, Idi Amin gave all Indians and citizens of Indian descent just 90 days to leave the country. … Readers will feel her inner conflict sharply, admire her resilience and quick thinking—and come away shocked themselves by the brutality she encounters during this little-known historical episode.” —Kirkus Reviews CONTINUED: http://www.frontstr eetbooks. com/books/ fiction/child_ of_dandelions. html GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago a chapter of GOPIO International. P.O. BOX 2286, Chaguanas. TRINIDAD. The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) unequivocally and categorically reiterates that there is only one authorized GOPIO Chapter in Trinidad and Tobago, namely GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, with its leadership team that was installed on February 29, 2008 in Freeport, Trinidad. The executives of GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago include Deosaran Bisnath (President); Varsha Maharaj (Secretary); Oscar Ramoutar (Treasurer); Ena Maraj, PRO; Directors (Niranjan Bhaggan, Jaganath Seeram-Maharaj) ; and Youth Officers (Shivanie Ramcharitar, Sacha Mahabal and Avinash Sanu). GOPIO International emphasizes that former GOPIO of Trinidad and Tobago chapter president Devant Maharaj does not function in any capacity in GOPIO International, any of its councils or chapters, and is not authorized to make any such representations on behalf of GOPIO Int’l or GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago. GOPIO is a secular, non-partisan, not-for-profit, international organization based in USA with chapters in various parts of the globe, representing the interests and aspirations of People of Indian Origin (PIOs), and promoting awareness and understanding of issues of concern — social, cultural, educational, economic, or political, to global NRI/PIO community. GOPIO can be contacted: Inder Singh (President, GOPIO Int’l) at gopio-intl@sbcgloba l.net or by tel +1-818-708-3885, Ashook Ramsaran (Sec General, GOPIO Int’l) at ramsaran@aol. com or by tel +1-718-939-8194, Deosaran Bisnath (President, GOPIO of Trinidad & Tobago) at deobisnath@yahoo. com or by tel +1-868-687-7529 Become a GOPIO member: write to - GopioTT@gmail. com GOPIO on the NET: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/GopioTT/ http://gopiott. blogspot. com/ http://www.gopio. net http://gopio. com ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ HINDU WISDOM Religions are different roads converging on the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads so long as we reach the same goal? I believe that all religions of the world are true more or less. I say “more or less” because I believe that everything the human hand touches, by reason of the very fact that human beings are imperfect, becomes imperfect. -Mahatma Gandhi From him come all the seas and the mountains, The rivers and the plants that support life. As the innermost Self of all, he dwells Within the cavern of the heart. -Mundaka Upanishad Self-important, obstinate, swept away by the pride of wealth, they ostentatiously perform sacrifices without any regard for their purpose. Egotistical, violent, arrogant, lustful, angry, envious of everyone, they abuse my presence within their own bodies and in the bodies of others. -Bhagavad Gita 16:13–18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ FREE TIBET, NOW!! http://tibet97. blogspot. com/ National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC), TRINIDAD Hall of Fame, 2008 THE CHILDREN OF a nation are the ones who will pursue a positive path to success. “Each parent, therefore, has the key for this progressive journey, which is more powerful than being a politician,” according to Trinidad-born artist, Dr Ralph Baney. At the time he was delivering the feature address at the National Council of Indian Culture’s (NCIC) 44th Anniversary Celebrations over the weekend, at its Fourth Induction Ceremony, at their headquarters along the Narsaloo Ramaya Drive, Endeavour, Chaguanas. Among the 2008 Inductees were Mahmoud P Alladin, Dr Ralph Baney, Vera Baney, Bisram Gopie, Ram Kirpalani, Kewal Maraj, Surujpat Mathura, Kamaluddin Mohammed, Narsaloo Ramaya, Ramdhanie Sharma, and Shri Brajamadhava Battacharya. Altogether so far 40 persons have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Dr Baney, who has received numerous awards for his talent as an artist, has also received from UWI in 2004 the Doctor of Letters Recognition and is further highlighted in the Who’s Who In American Art and American Artists of Renown. He told the NCIC gathering:”Each ethnic group has its own historical leaders to emulate and together what a combination of resources we have to follow.” He felt that the “key to achieving this goal is our children. We may lament the failures of governments and its institutions in developing a successful society but, we have the key to change in the children who are its future.”  He said that each sector of the society in Trinidad and Tobago had the key to change and it is more powerful than what obtains in politics. He was of the view that “inequity in the country hindered nation-building progress and undermines the commitment of citizens leading to self -preservation.”  “We tend to become predatory citizens, who live in gated communities,” he added. Deokienanan Sharma, president of the NCIC, said that they would continue to propagate the culture of their forefathers which “was jealously retained by them.  They have succeeded in “creating a community with vibrant cultural practices.” http://www.newsday. co.tt/features/ 0,83083.html The latest issue of the Indo-Caribbean Times can be accessed online at http://www.esnips.com/ web/Indo- CaribbeanTimes TANTRA: The Method Of Kindling Dormant Energies THE IMAGE OF TANTRA IN COMMON MAN’S MIND SEX IS NOT A SIN: TANTRA FOR HEALTHY SEXUALITY Tantra – a unique spiritual system capable of resolving the mystery of Being and its relationship with the world without itself being mysterious, caught in the cobwebs of misconceptions, misled beliefs, clergies’ disapprovals, moralists’ censure, ethical concerns, quakes’ and sorcerers’ misuses and abuses, opposition of the ‘authorised’ – theology, philosophy …, and above all, the centuries long antipathy of Islamic and Christian rulers, has been the subject of neglect, indifference and even aversion for quite some time now. The term ‘Tantra’, often seen personified in the person practising it, the ‘tantrika’, brings to mind’s eye the image of a man with a rugged, coarse, hoary-looking, bearded and wrinkled face, eyes deeply pushed into their sockets, and locks of rough uncouth muddy long hair hung around shoulders. Wearing a long loosely hung black cloak and strings of multi- coloured, multi-shaped and multi-sized beads, stones and amulets, with a bundle of peacock feathers in his hands, he is fantasized as seated against a smoky hearth in a dark murky odorous cell in the suburb of a tribal or backward hamlet, engaged in practices considered to relate to ghosts, evil spirits or other forms of witch-craft and black arts. To so- conditioned a mind, Tantra is a system comprising incredible, primitive, unscientific beliefs, which by inciting blind faith exploits undeveloped or under-developed masses. Quite strangely, and unbelievably, Tantra, which emerges with such image in common man’s mind now, is India’s earliest, or at the most, one of the two earliest spiritual systems, the other being Vedanta. Being more simple and natural, seeking sublimation of what one is born with, not its negation – the modus of the Vedanta, Tantra dominated India’s spiritual and ritual scene for centuries with all principal theologies – Buddhism, Jainism, and even Vedanta’s offshoot Brahmanism and its components Shaivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism, practising it as a scientific, technical and spiritual method leading to attainment of self-awareness, and thereby, ultimate knowledge and liberation. Perhaps a pre-Vedic ritual cult practised by Harappan settlers and thus one of the world’s earliest spiritual cultures, the Tantra occupied India’s intellectual domain ever since. Significantly, the number of Tantra-related texts, which began pouring in from early centuries of the Christian era and continued till late eighteenth century, is greater than that of the texts related to any other system of thought, though unfortunately most of them, usually manuscribed as secret documents for individuals, survive now only as allusions occurring in other texts. Not how the common mind takes, or mistakes it, Tantra has been on censor’s list almost always, or at least after the Vedic asceticism gained prominence, sometimes for psycho-metaphysical reasons and sometimes on grounds of morality. Human mind naturally inclines to obtain what it does not have, seek knowledge of things ‘not known’. This mind disapproves Tantra for the Tantra takes off with the real, instinctive, inborn, inherent in nature, that is, ‘what is’, or ‘that which is the best known’ – the body, nature, desires or whatever. What to Tantra is its basic source to sublimate is to this reasoning mind base and common not worth striving for. Apart, the common notion is that the key to transcendence is in the negation of oneself. One has to negate, relinquish himself to become what he is not; he has to give up what he has to obtain what he does not have. He venerates asceticism, or whatever, because asceticism is above him. He believes that asceticism is close to the ‘achievable’. To reach the ‘achievable’, he is required to acquire first this ‘in-between’ asceticism which is not in him. Asceticism condemns him as a gross common reality – a thing of flesh and bundle of frailties, shows his littleness and commands him to disbelieve himself. Mesmerized he accepts this … CONTINUED http://www.exoticin dia.com/article/ tantric/ V S NAIPAUL: A Tribute http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 56 Indians head a dozen Fortune 500 firms NEW YORK: Led by Vikram Pandit-run Citigroup, there are a dozen Fortune 500 companies across the world with an Indian or a person of India-origin as chief, as per the latest list of world’s biggest corporations released today. While there are seven Indian companies on this year’s Global Fortune 500 list, up from six last year, at least five other members of this league have been run by persons of Indian-origin over the past year. Among these companies, Citigroup, ranked 17th in the list prepared on the basis of the companies’ annual revenue, has Nagpur-born Pandit as its CEO since December last year. Citi is followed ArcelorMittal, which has billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal as its CEO and main promoter, at 39th rank and Vodafone at 85th.  Other firms are beverages major PepsiCo (184) and financial services entity Hartford Financial Services (311). PepsiCo is headed by Indra Nooyi while Hartford Financial is led by Ramani Ayer. Inspiration http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10 BRAVE ALL TRIALS Trials, difficulties, troubles and sufferings are necessary for your purification and to strengthen your will and power of endurance. Face them bravely and come out triumphantly. Press on. Strive on with all your will; only then is the grace of God bestowed. God helps those who help themselves. If bad thoughts enter your mind, simply ignore them. Offer a prayer to the Lord and substitute divine thoughts by studying the sacred books. The spiritual fire should be generated day after day. Hold fast to the ideal. Keep the flame of aspiration ever bright. Scorn mundane delights and strife. Dedicate your life to God. God is one. God is peace. God is universal harmony. God is love and law. As a lamp cannot burn without oil, so man cannot live without God. Creation reveals that God is dharma (righteousness) . God is the bestower of grace which is boundless and inexhaustible. – SIVANANDA Readings http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/CaribbeanH indus/ http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ ‘jahaj’ = ship; ‘desi’ = Indian ‘JahajeeDesi’ = The Indians who crossed the Kala Pani by ship, the Indentured Indian Immigrants, and their descendants. http://www.JahajeeD esi.com For Free Subscription to this Newsletter, or to Join the JahajeeDesi YAHOO Group, or to contribute News, Letters, Essays, Reviews, Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo. com Subscription Problems? Unsubscribe? Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo. com http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? act=idx http://deosaranbisn ath.wordpress. com/wp-admin/ post-new. php

IJJ, July 6, 2008: CHUTNEY AS POLITICAL IDIOM; ‘From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize -The Indentured Immigrants’; NAIPAUL: Leaving the ghetto; VISHAWANATH ANAND, World Chess Champion

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), July 6th, 2008 Voice of the International Indian Diaspora http://www.jahajeed esi.com/   Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora Editor: Deosaran Bisnath deobisnath@yahoo. com http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot. com http://deosaranbisn ath.wordpress. com/ http://jahajeedesi. blogspot. com/ http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? act=idx     “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — The Declaration of Independence (USA) Happy July 4th to all our American readers.
Six-year-old Nikita Ramadhin, a Second Year student, performs a dance during an awards ceremony for successful SEA students at the Gandhi Memorial Vedic APS Primary School in Aranjuez, TRINIDAD. http://newsday. co.tt
Chutney as a political idiom By Kanchan Gupta   The distance that ‘East Indians’ — men and women from what is known as the Bhojpur region, apart from those from Bengal, of whom there were few — indentured to work on sugarcane plantations in Mauritius, and later in British colonies in the Caribbean, travelled in jampacked ships and in abysmal conditions across the kala pani, was not only geographical but also cultural. Within a span of three to four months, the time taken by schooners to transport the indentured labourers from the dockside in Calcutta to the disembarkation jetties at Port Louis in Mauritius, Port of Spain in Trinidad, and other similar destinations, these men and women, fleeing what a historian has described as “the appalling poverty and joylessness of life under such conditions that cannot be easily pictured”, found themselves in an alien land with alien practices that violently clashed with their centuries-old religious and social traditions. Draupadi not only became Drupatee and Sriprasad was renamed Seepersaud, courtesy immigration clerks, but along with their new names they were also confronted with the choice of disowning their past or clinging on to it. Some disowned it; most refused to break free of all that they had learned and inherited by way of tradition, rites and rituals. Tattered copies of the Ramayan became the most valued possession; pandits with knowledge of Sanskrit found themselves pushed up the social ladder; and, despite its best efforts, the Presbyterian Church failed to separate ‘heathens’ from their ‘heathenism’ .   In the post-colonial era, the cultural identity of the East Indian community — referred to as Indo- Caribbean in Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana and other Caribbean states — became the foundation of their political aspirations: Politics was, and remains, a means of protecting identity and asserting the right not to be swamped by Afro-Caribbean, or Black, culture. But for all their efforts, the East Indians have not entirely succeeded in this, as is evident from the creeping influence of Creole culture and Black culture, even among those who remain firmly rooted in Hindu traditions linking them to their homeland. The World Is What It Is: The Authorised Biography of VS Naipaul, by Patrick French, provides a certain insight into this conflict between past and present and the gradual accommodation and assimilation of cultures as memories recede with each passing generation. While keeping the past alive has been easier in Mauritius, where descendents of the indentured labourers are in a majority, it has been more difficult in the Caribbean where East Indian communities are suffering numerical erosion as the affluent among the new generation seek fame and fortune in the US and Europe. The uneven electoral performance of the United National Congress in Trinidad and Tobago and the trials and tribulati ons of Mr Basdeo Panday are indicative of the community’s declining numbers, although infighting and back-stabbing, the staple of politics in India, have played no mean role in preventing the UNC from becoming the dominant political force. The Afro-Caribbean politicians have not missed the opportunity to exploit the Indo-Caribbean community’s weaknesses to their advantage, thus retaining power when they should have really been in the Opposition.   The immediate provocation for these thoughts is a fine collection of essays in the journal, Man in India (Serial Publications, New Delhi), whose special issue on the Indian diaspora in the Caribbean provides a fascinating insight into the post-colonial lives of the descendents of indentured labourers. Edited by Prof Kumar Mahabir of the University of Trinidad & Tobago, among the best-known scholars of the East Indian experience, it brings together views from Trinidad, St Vincent , Suriname , Guyana and Martinique . My favourite is Kai Abi Barratt’s essay, ‘I found my East Indian beauty’. While reading it, I was transported back in time to an evening spent in the frangipani-scented lush lawns of the residence of Mr Basdeo Panday, who was then Prime Minister. After a sumptuous dinner, we were treated to live chutney music.   The relevance of the show dawned the next day when a group of young East Indian activists met me at the hotel and launched into a long tirade against the UNC Government for sponsoring that year’s calypso carnival and thus poking the community squarely in the eye. Afro-Caribbean musicians, I was told, use calypso to denigrate East Indians and flaunt their prowess by using sexual innuendoes: The wilting Indian beauty succumbing to the raw charms of the macho Black. An agitated young Maharaj, his first name slips my mind, said Mr Panday should have withdrawn official support for the calypso carinval and instead promoted chutney, integral to the East Indian culture, to make a political point. By not doing so, he had pandered to the Blacks at the cost of East Indian sentiments. Apparently, community elders had lodged a similar complaint with Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. To disprove his critics, Mr Panday ensured there was a lot of chutney at the official dinner he hosted for the visiting Indian Prime Minister and we had a riotous time.   But like all things Indian, community opinion, it now transpires, is divided on chutney, described as “representing Indian cultural continuity and persistence” in the Caribbean , too. Drupatee Ramgoonai, the most popular exponent of chutney and whose album Pepper Pepper (Mirchi Mirchi in Hindi) was a huge hit, has riled community leaders with her lyrics and performance skills. In the popular chutney song, Lick down mih nani, she sings, Lick down mih nani He fender break On nani waist Now she can’t move She two knee bruise While he drivin he was gazin Ah feeling sad, she bump she hard…   What is seemingly incomprehensible to us Indians in India is replete with shocking double entendre for conservative East Indians in Trinidad for whom Drupatee Ramgoonai’s music is as outrageous as that of Executor and Dictator, popular calypso artistes. Kai Abi Barratt quotes a Maharaj incandescent with rage, “For an Indian girl to throw away her upbringing and culture to mix with vulgar music, sex and alcohol in carnival tents tells me something is radically wrong with her psyche. Drupatee Ramgoonai has chosen to worship the gods of sex, wine and easy money.” In a sense, it’s the same old story of the past jostling with the present for a future that is tense.     “Smutty & Dutty” “…Another question I must ask is: how is it that chutney artistes such as Adesh Samaroo and Lalchan ‘Hunter’ Babwah are allowed to glorify the abuse of alcohol under the guise of ‘culture’? Alcohol is the drug which is singly responsible for the destruction of more individual lives and families than marijuana, cocaine and guns put together. Despite this knowledge, these chutney artists are held as cultural heroes. The terms “smutty” and “dutty” have more applications than those which many include in their subjective definitions. “ Ganesh Gupta, GUYANA       From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS by Karan Chand Karan Chand is a Guyanese living and teaching for the past 19 years in Belize City, Belize. This book is on the list for Literature at two high schools in Belize and others are now considering it to be included as an additional text. From Bengal to Bushlot to Belize - THE INDENTURED IMMIGRANTS is is available from the author – E-mail kchand16@hotmail. com   BONDED SERVANT  ”…..Day after day Mattai left for work before daybreak after eating and using the communal latrine over the trench which was an open sewer. On his way he secretly threw his baited buoys into the canal at a grassy spot to conceal them. He worked very hard, always choosing ‘task work’ over  ‘day work’, determined to earn the maximum wage. He chopped cane with his cutlass and stacked them. As he did, he usually overheard the sound of cane being cut by others in nearby fields, amid voices in conversation. Not far away, other workers were constantly yelling at uncooperative oxen and mules as they hauled the long carts and iron punts 9 laden with cane being transported to the factory. Mattai worked alone swinging his cutlass with great proficiency. As he did, his body was continuously covered in sweat which soaked his sparse clothing and trickled into his eyes, burning them. From time to time, he swiped his saturated forehead with the back of his left hand and shook it, shedding the invading sweat. This was done in one continuous, instinctive action that did not disrupt the rhythm of his chopping. Mattai felt helpless; entrapped. He had never expected to work so hard in his life. However, there seemed to be no easier option, no readily available alternative. Many years before, he had stopped entertaining the thought of escaping. Then, when he was still young and restless, he had fled from his quarters and ran all night through the dark forest hoping to reach the seashore. Convinced that he could not have been that far from his homeland, he had, for many months, planned to make a raft and set sail for Calcutta .  In his rush, he had thumped his right big toe, severely injuring it, on a piece of fallen bamboo. Ignoring the pain, rather enduring it, he had limped on. By daybreak, he had not reached any body of water. The next day, hungry and tired, he had been caught hiding in the bushes. The Driver on horseback had taken him back to the estate. At the manager’s office he had been sternly rebuked and told to pay one shilling on payday. In hindsight, he realized that he had been favored. Older men who had tried to escape had been tied to a post and severely flogged with a cat-o’-nine-tails under the manager’s house. They had convulsed in pain during the ordeal which ended with salt pickle being rubbed on their wounded backs. Some of them got so ill afterwards that they had to be taken to the sick-house.. ….   THE WEDDING   On the eve of the wedding people again gathered at the venue for the wedding, a large two-storied, wooden house on tall cement pillars. It was the “Cook Night”.  While most of the invitees danced, drank and socialized, chosen people cooked all night underneath the house preparing for the attendees on the following day. In an enclosed area illuminated by a Tilly gas lamp, some women were busy peeling and dicing vegetables and preparing concoctions of other ingredients, various spices, which they crushed to a puree on massala seels.6 These were sent nearby to the men who cooked them in huge caharies 7 along with rice and dhal  8 which they constantly stirred with long wooden paddles.  All the while, there was music mixed with chatting, laughter and drinking. The cooked food was carefully stored in a makeshift room called the bandara 9 with one man supervising its apportioning as needed. This was vital in order to minimize wastage and prevent shortage. This time, Mattai was present and actively participating by micromanaging, having been asked to take charge by the bride’s father, Babutty. He moved around stirring pots, tasting, adding ingredients and chatting, while at the same time giving directives to others who assisted him. He was considered indispensable as far as catering for large crowds were concerned, regardless of whether it was a time for celebration or sorrow.  At these times his new status, from an underdog cane-cutter to a supervisor, gave him a feeling of importance and made him tireless, especially when the drinks were circulating, even though he was well aware that it was a temporary position. It was a badge of honor for him and made his days. With such feeling of self worth, he worked unfalteringly and did not return home until the wee hours of the morning. 6  massala seels-rubbing stones 7 caharies- cauldrons/ huge hemispherical pots 8 dhal- cooked yellow split peas 9 bandara-makeshift room serving as a pantry      RICE CULTIVATION “…Mattai’s daughter and son-in-law could not be there every harvest as they had both a rice and cane farm of their own to attend to. During their absence, Mattai, Sook and Rattowa worked late into the nights mostly in the ‘watch house’ with the light of a bamchodie 10. One night, Sook was walking behind the oxen in circles around a post mashing a pile of rice to separate the grains from the stack. Mattai was occupied nearby. They had not spoken for a while so absorbed were they with their work and thoughts. Suddenly, without forewarning, Sook said, ” Pa, ah want to be wan police.” “Wha’ yu seh bie?” Mattai, who was putting threshed rice grains into jute bags, did not hear him. ” Ah want to be wan policeman.” Mattai stopped working and let go of the bag which fell, spilling some of the grains.  Rattowa had remained later than usual because of the demanding work. In the moonlight outside, she was out of earshot winnowing the paddy in a huge sieve hanging on a frame in order …..” 10 bamchodie-  flambeau, bottle lamp     Episodes of Indian Experience by Professor Kenneth Ramchand Professor Kenneth Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Emeritus of English (Colgate University), and currently, Associate Provost, The Academy at the University of Trinidad and Tobago for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs. http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot. com/ NAIPAUL: Leaving the ghetto Short of money and short of food, V S Naipaul found his early life as a writer in Fifties London harsh. Then the BBC offered him a lifeline with a radio programme, Caribbean Voices. It became an important influence, but one he later felt obliged to disown When V S Naipaul published his slim, grumpy memoir A Writer’s People late last year, assorted reviewers took the chance to denounce him. It was a familiar spectacle, the lion in winter having chunks torn from him by writers who would not have attacked him in his prime. In Naipaul’s case, his determined self-construction during five decades in print was a provocation in itself: who was this Trinidadian man who lived as a knight of the shires and denounced multiculturalism as “multi- culti”? He said, or was said to have said, that Africa had no future, Islam was a calamity, France was fraudulent and interviewers were monkeys. How dare he support Hindu nationalism? If Zadie Smith - optimistic and presentable – was a white liberal’s dream, Naipaul was the nightmare. For a successful immigrant writer to take the positions he did was seen as a special kind of treason, a betrayal of what should be a purely literary genius. “Great art, dreadful politics,” complained Terry Eagleton…. . By 1962, he was aware that his identity had been compromised by external events. East Indians in independent Trinidad appeared to be facing black majority rule, and many were trying to emigrate. Under a new law, however, Commonwealth citizens would be denied the right to move to the UK. Naipaul regarded the Commonwealth Immigrants Act as a betrayal. In a copy of A House for Mr Biswas, he wrote his signature and, “For Andrew Salkey, in London, from which one may in future be banned.” The mother country had abandoned a generation of orphaned children. Ambitious, protean, deracinated by the accelerated politics of the end of empire, Naipaul made a conscious choice to refashion himself. The publishing vogue for West Indian writing was over and, uniquely among his contem poraries, he saw the implications of this early enough to do something about it. Jan Carew remembered: The last time we met was in a café in the Tottenham Court Road. By then, there were rumours that Vidia was living in some part of London where West Indians were not welcome, and was taking up with different people. He told me he was going to become English, and I thought he was pulling my leg. The English are very strict about letting you in, particularly if you are a different colour. I thought it was one of his jokes, but he was quite serious about it. He meant he was giving up his West Indian imprimatur and taking on an English one. Naipaul refused to be classified as a Caribbean novelist any longer. He would try to make himself into a new type of writer, a world writer. Only very occasionally would he lift the mask. In Trinidad in the late 1980s, he bumped into Sam Selvon at his sister’s house and accepted an invitation to go boating near Soldado Rock. In the words of an eyewitness: “Sam said he wanted to swim. It was a real hot day. Vidia says, ‘I would love to, but I don’t have my bathing things.’ Sam says, ‘I swimmin’ in my jockey shorts.’ Vidia says, “I can’t do that.’ We were in the sea, then kerplunk, V S Naipaul was in the water, swimming around the boat in his jockey shorts.” “The World Is What It Is: the Authorised Biography of V S Naipaul” by Patrick French is published by Picador (£20). http://www.newstate sman.com/ books/2008/ 04/naipaul- bbc-writer- short       “My life is an indivisible whole, and all my attitudes run into one another; and they all have their rise in my insatiable love for mankind.” — Mahatma Gandhi         UWI Hindu Society, c/o Guild of Students, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. uwihindusociety@ gmail.com   Hinduism, a way of life       Sitaram,     The University of the West Indies Hindu Society will be hosting its Annual Dinner and Dance function on July 12th 2008 at the Rooftop Restaurant, Mt. Hope Medical Sciences Complex, from 7.pm.   The theme of this event is entitled “Dhanyavaad,” as the evening would be dedicated to acknowledging and honouring the Dharmic efforts of the 2006-2007 Executive, as well as our Special Contributors who assist us in the promotion of our mission. These honourees have rendered their services to Hinduism in a graceful and dignified manner, and for this we say “Thank You.”   We extend this invitation to you – our membership and external supporters, to join with us in sharing a delightful evening.     Tickets are priced at $80, and can be collected from Amrita (685-6133) or Shivam (754-9471). For further information, please contact us!     We do look forward to your presence and wish you continued success and spiritual bliss in all your future missions.       Thank You Yours Sincerely,                                                                                                            Emma Mangaroo                                                                                                (President- 2007-2008)                                                                                            The UWI Hindu Society is an organization formed by the Campus Hindu Community under the constitution of the Guild of Students of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. MOTTO: There is no Religion higher than truth  684-9799           Indian Indentured Immigration to Trinidad by Deosaran Bisnath, Editor, International Jahajee Journal Part 1 : Origin of The Coolie Slave Trade  http://deosaranbisn ath.blogspot.com/     GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago a chapter of GOPIO International. P.O. BOX 2286, Chaguanas. TRINIDAD. The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) unequivocally and categorically reiterates that there is only one authorized GOPIO Chapter in Trinidad and Tobago, namely GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago, with its leadership team that was installed on February 29, 2008 in Freeport, Trinidad. The executives of GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago include Deosaran Bisnath (President); Varsha Maharaj (Secretary); Oscar Ramoutar (Treasurer); Directors (Niranjan Bhaggan, Jaganath Seeram-Maharaj) ; and Youth Officers (Shivanie Ramcharitar, Sacha Mahabal and Avinash Sanu).   GOPIO International emphasizes that former GOPIO of Trinidad and Tobago chapter president Devant Maharaj does not function in any capacity in GOPIO International, any of its councils or chapters, and is not authorized to make any such representations on behalf of GOPIO Int’l or GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.      GOPIO is a secular, non-partisan, not-for-profit, international organization based in USA with chapters in various parts of the globe, representing the interests and aspirations of People of Indian Origin (PIOs), and promoting awareness and understanding of issues of concern — social, cultural, educational, economic, or political, to global NRI/PIO community.   GOPIO can be contacted: Inder Singh (President, GOPIO Int’l) at gopio-intl@sbcgloba l.net  or by tel +1-818-708-3885, Ashook Ramsaran (Sec General, GOPIO Int’l) at ramsaran@aol. com  or by tel +1-718-939-8194, Deosaran Bisnath (President, GOPIO of Trinidad & Tobago) at deobisnath@yahoo. com or by tel +1-868-687-7529 Become a GOPIO member: write to - GopioTT@gmail. com GOPIO on the NET: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/GopioTT/ http://gopiott. blogspot. com/ http://www.gopio. net http://gopio. com ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ HINDU WISDOM Where love is, there God is also. -Mahatma Gandhi   May the light of wisdom illumine us. May we become united with the Lord. Let us contemplate five categories: The world and luminous worlds in the sky, Education, progeny, and speech. -Taittiriya Upanishad   For aspirants who want to climb the mountain of spiritual awareness, the path is selfless work; for those who have ascended to yoga the path is stillness and peace. When a person has freed himself from attachment to the results of work, and from desires for the enjoyment of sense objects, he ascends to the unitive state. -Bhagavad Gita 6:3-4   ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~     The Indian Defense By VISWANATHAN ANAND Viswanathan Anand, 39, is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current world chess champion Where did chess begin? For many who play the sport at its highest, most obsessive levels, that’s not just a question of history — it’s a matter of ownership, of dominion. We’re so completely lost in our universe of 64 black and white squares that we like to think every move we make changes the way the world exists. So it’s easy for Russians to imagine that chess began when they started to play it. In 1991, at my first international tournament, in Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, a Russian grandmaster condescendingly told me I could at best be a coffee-house player because I had not been tutored in the Soviet school of chess, which then dominated the sport. With the arrogance of youth — I was 21 — I thought to myself, “But didn’t we Indians invent chess? Why shouldn’t I have my own route to the top of the sport?”   It would take me 17 years to find that route, and along the way I’ve had hundreds of conversations about the origins of chess — with players, fans, officials, taxi drivers, barbers and who knows how many people who sat next to me on a plane. I’ve heard the ownership of chess being claimed by Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Spaniards and Greeks. My own view is that the sport belongs to everybody who plays it, but the question of its origins is easy enough to answer: chess comes from India. Our claim is based not on dominance — although the Indian school is now producing lots of high-quality players, including (ahem) the world No. 1. Some of the oldest references to the sport are found in ancient Indian texts. In the great epic Ramayana (which, according to some sources, was orally transmitted sometime between 750 B.C. and 500 B.C.), the demon king Ravana invents chess to amuse his wife Mandodari. A brilliant mind, she promptly beats him at it. My grandmother told me that story when I first began to play the game at age 6. Chess also features in the Arthashastra (3rd century B.C.), perhaps the world’s oldest political treatise. Its author, Chanakya, describes chess as a game of war strategy, known as chaturanga, played on an 8-by-8 board. Think of it as the world’s first virtual war game. I believe chess traveled westward out of India, through what is now Afghanistan into Persia, where it arrived during the Sassanid Empire — an Indian king is believed to have sent a chessboard as a gift to his Persian counterpart. At the royal court in Ctesiphon, the game was known as chatrang. The Arabs learned it (they called it shatranj) when they conquered Persia in the 6th century A.D. and carried it across northern Africa. They introduced the game to Europe when the Moors crossed the Mediterranean into the Iberian peninsula. It grew immensely popular in Moorish Spain, where it was played in the street — a practice still seen in parks and other squares in cities around the world. … READ MORE         FREE TIBET, NOW!! http://tibet97. blogspot. com/         The June issue of the Indo-Caribbean Times can be accessed online at http://www.esnips.com/ web/Indo- CaribbeanTimes Some articles from this Indian Arrival special issue: Canada Indo-Caribbeans tell their stories of arrival in Canada: Dr Deoraj Narine, Manshad Mohammed, Indra Ramdass 20,000 expected for Guyana Festival in Toronto Vedic Cultural Centre marks a Century of Indo-Caribbean Arrival Heritage Day celebrations in an East Toronto School Tribute to immigrant #1 Kenneth Maharaj Applying for refugee status in Canada Camille Ross starts Guyana Beat television program Caribbean Hindus to hold Canada Day Satsangh & Hawan to pray for the nation     My Arrival story in Canada Dr Deoraj Narine    I came to Canada from Guyana on September 1st 1979 to attend Acadia University in Nova Scotia for an Msc in Chemistry.  At that time you could fly from Georgetown to Trinidad, Bermuda and Halifax.  I landed there all dressed up in this polyester suit and it was freezing cold in Halifax at the end of August. Halifax as you know is next to the ocean.      I settled in there and it was quite nice but very, very cold. There was loneliness of course. If you were there you wished the plane would land and you could step out of there and fly back to Guyana. But it didn’t happen. You know we have to live out our dreams.    One of the funny things about conditions under colonialism is that you never see white people dig a drain. You never see them doing manual work. You see them riding on horse with cork hat or driving in jeep.      The next day I was going to register at the university. There I was walking down Main Street in  Wolfville,  Nova Scotia and there was this white guy digging a drain. You may not believe this but I stood up for about three minutes staring at this guy. Believe it or not. It was embarassing!   … MORE AT:   http://www.esnips.com/ web/Indo- CaribbeanTimes         THE INDO-ST. LUCIAN EXPERIENCE Courtesy James Rambally Originally posted in Bhatchaman Yahoo group    ”…I was speaking to an Indo-St. Lucian and this is the first time I was able to actually get someone to admit how they really felt about their experience in St. Lucia: Growing up in St. Lucia, I was ashamed of being Indian. I did not grow up in the Indian community as others did, and I was cutoff from the outside world. I remember being terrified to go to school because insults of Coolie Calcutta were hurled at me. I was always prepared to defend myself whether it was physically or verbally. People always threw insults about my anatomy and that the fact I was Indian, I was naturally weaker than the others around me. I thank my father becuase he would come to school and straighten out these people who called me names and threatened me.    He later commented that in living in St. Lucia he thought Indians never did anything of value. All he saw Indians doing was agricultural and transportation jobs. It wasn’t until he left St. Lucia that he saw Indian people had achieved momumentous feats. We talked about the percentage of Indians in St. Lucia, and he TRULY believed that the Indian population was less than half a percent. He believed Indians in St. Lucia were a dying race and that many had low self-esteem as the result of being Indian.” http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Bhatchaman /         V S NAIPAUL: A Tribute http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 56        Hindu wedding songs By SEETA PERSAD  http://www.newsday. co.tt CULTURAL ACTIVIST, author and singer Rukminee Beepath recently presented her latest work, Vivaaha Geet to the National Library in Chaguanas recently. Due to the numerous requests from secondary school students and UWI, Beepath has been distributing her book to schools and libraries across the country. The book contains 108 traditional Hindu wedding songs and the corresponding meanings. “The Hindu wedding contains the most fascinating rituals. It calls on the presence of the various devis and devtas (gods and goddesses) associated with Hinduism to give blessings to the couple who is prepared to take this step in life,” Beepath explained. She said the belief is that couples were connected in another life. As a result, when they join union in this life they call on the gods to remove all their bad karmas and bless them with prosperity. Beepath’s daughter, Reshma Beepath Umrau, who is also active in the cultural field, explained that the rituals associated with a Hindu wedding takes three days to complete. “There is a song for every step taken by the bride and by the groom in their respective homes,” she said. On the third day the couple comes together at the bride’s home to complete the ceremonies, then return to the home of the groom to start their new life. The book, which is available at local bookstores is also available in the United States and the United Kingdom. Beepath has also released a compilation of the wedding songs in a CD by the same name. This compilation contains 20 songs which are sung as part of the Hindu wedding ceremony. WORD PLAY claque \KLACK\, noun: 1. A group hired to applaud at a performance. 2. A group of fawning admirers. He cultivated the “Georgetown set” of leading journalists and columnists and had them cheering for him as if he had hired a claque. – Theodore Draper, “Little Heinz And Big Henry”, New York Times, September 6, 1992 Behind the hacks was the claque. They cheered and whooped in a vague way, like a group of restrained English persons at a Texas rodeo: “Whee! Whoooo! Polite cough!” – Simon Hoggart, “Yee hah, chaps! It’s the manifesto”, The Guardian, May 11, 2001 Charles Bukowski suffers from too good a press– a small but loudly enthusiastic claque. – Kenneth Rexroth, “There’s Poetry in a Ragged Hitch-Hiker” , New York Times, July 5, 1964 Claque comes from French, from claquer, “to clap,” ultimately of imitative origin.     Inspiration http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10  WAVES OF GANGA Experience is never possible without consciousness. Anything that is eternal must be infinite and unlimited. Consciousness is unlimited; the consciousness of limitation shows that consciousness is greater than limitation. Perfection is the attainment of immortal life or pure consciousness. The enquiry of, “Who am I?” leads to self- realisation (Brahma-jnana) . Divine wisdom can be attained only by those who are endowed with purity. Tear the veil. Realise the reality. Bliss is not an attribute. It is the very constitutive essence of the self, or atman. As the self is absolute in nature, its bliss is also absolute. This is the same as Brahman. Annihilate the ego. Reach the goal here and now. Take the inner essence and attain perfection. Relax not the keen vigilance against your most subtle foes – egoism and desire. Where can you see the Lord? I found the Lord where `I’ did not exist. Where there is no sense of `I’, there is liberation. It is bondage to have the sense of `I’ and `mine’. Identify with the all-pervading soul (atman). You will attain immortality. This is the secret of eternal life. – SIVANANDA Readings http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/CaribbeanH indus/ http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? showforum= 10       ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ ‘jahaj’ = ship; ‘desi’ = Indian ‘JahajeeDesi’ = The Indians who crossed the Kala Pani by ship, the Indentured Indian Immigrants, and their descendents. http://www.JahajeeD esi.com For Free Subscription to this Newsletter, or to Join the JahajeeDesi YAHOO Group, or to contribute News, Letters, Essays, Reviews, Send Mail to:  CCDSJ@yahoo. com Subscription Problems? Unsubscribe? Send Mail to: CCDSJ@yahoo. com http://www.jahajeed esi.com/forums/ index.php? act=idx http://deosaranbisn ath.wordpress. com/wp-admin/ post-new. php

IJJ, June 22nd, 2008: My Agi who crossed the Kalapani; Drink from my Calabash; South Arica: “Go back to India, Coolie”. “Chinese is the New Black”

 

International Jahajee Journal (IJJ), June 22nd, 2008
Voice of the International  Indian Diaspora
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/  

Home of the International Jahajee Diaspora

Editor: Deosaran Bisnath
http://deosaranbisnath.blogspot.com
http://deosaranbisnath.wordpress.com/
http://jahajeedesi.blogspot.com/
http://www.jahajeedesi.com/forums/index.php?act=idx  

 

Whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse must
vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain high though the difficulties
appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but maya. Fear
not—it is banished. Crush it and it vanishes. Stamp upon it and it dies. Be not
afraid. Think not how many times you fail. Never mind—time is infinite. Go
forward. Assert yourself again and again and light must come.
-Vivekananda

 

 

SUMMER 2008

Shriya, the cover girl

 

Bold and beautiful: Kollywood siren Shriya Saran is all set to scorch
the screen this summer as she turns cover girl for Maxim

 

She is acting in Ashok Amritraj’s Hollywood flick The Other End of the Line. .

 

A  picture of my Agi who crossed the Kalapani

By Leela Ramdeen

leela_ramdeen@hotmail.com

www.rcsocialjusticett.org

 

   

Your hands have changed with the years -

grown a little out of shape and worn.

Worn from the indentation of the cutlass

that ate into your soft flesh as you cut

the cane – day in, day out.

 

You used to hold me high on your hips

looking at me with knowing eyes,

your long, black hair smelling of

coconut oil with streaks of silver

glistening in the sun,

your shoulders bent from backbreaking

work in the fields – day in, day out.

 

I saw you once literally bleed

from the bottoms of your feet

as you walked through the

smouldering fields – still

blazing in parts – just to

make sure you cut your quota

of cane for the day –

under the watchful eye of the overseer

sitting high on his horse –

day in, day out.

 

You taught me how to count in Hindi

Ack, do, teen. You sang about

those you left behind, while I

climbed unto your lap and curled into

The crook of your left arm.

You cradled me and as the strain

of your sweet voice was carried by the wind

my eyes grew drowsy from the

swaying of the hammock – day in, day out.

 

If you had any hidden dreams, other than

of being a good wife, mother, grandmother,

no one ever knew about them. If deep regrets,

fears, or personal doubts tormented you

you never stated them. You were here

sitting stately on your perha

grinding masala early in the morning

before the sun rose – day in, day out.

 

Agi, they say there is no other success

for parents except to feel that they

have made some contribution to the

development of their children. No one knows

your true worth but us, your children.

You are the object of our love and

adoration. We appreciate the single-

heartedness of your life, your sturdy

unselfishness and the sacrifice you made for

your family – day in, day out.

Leela Ramdeen is a lawyer and education consultant

 

 

 

Bollywood’s veggie brigade
Cutest on the list: Kareena Kapoor is not only receiving compliments for her size zero but also for turning vegetarian.

 

 

 

 

Black magic: Vidya Balan inspired by Kareena’s size zero look is also on a crash diet and she says being a vegetarian helps lose weight easily.       Veggie Big B: Amitabh Bachchan has been voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian male in a survey conducted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).     The hunk: Milind Soman also swears by veg food only     “I’d rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong.” J.M.Keynes

 

Drink from my Calabash by Norman Tewarie You came to my house As sneaky as mouse I offer you water in my calabash I’m open I have nothing to stash You felt bad maybe I aroused your curiosity What a simple life I live I have nothing to give I gave you water in a calabash Which I use to cook and to wash I am not rich- I do not horde I give you what I can afford I do not make false promises Don’t live up to the Joneses The calabash came from a tree And it is clean and it’s healthy It was not made by man It came from the land Man has to go back to the basics Put aside science and physics And try his bloody darn best To be sincere and be honest And use the truth for his cure And take a lesson from Nature. From a new book by Norman Tewarie tewarienormy@yahoo.ca To be released soon.

India Came West   by Norman Tewarie The 13th of January was an ordinary day in India When in 1838, the SS Whitby sailed with 24 9immigrants After 112 days she reached Georgetown , Guyana With her first batch trying to fulfil their needs and wants   Not long after another, the SS Hesperus came She sailed on the 19th January at much cost With 165 Indians on board it was not the same For 13 died on board and at sea two were lost   On the 30th of May in 1845 came the SS Rozack After 137 days she did not come to the main For stormy weather caused her a serious set-back With 225 souls she landed in Port of Spain   The last ship was the SS Ganges Which sailed in 1917 on 17th January Thus ended coming of the jahajis Strong kinship made on the journey   In 1917, 239,756 Indians were in Guyana Many died with flu epidemic and disease After 5 years many went back to India      To their respective provinces and cities   These pioneers came from Bengal and Behar The North West provinces, Oudh and Orissa From pretty Punjab and Uttar Pradesh so far      From cities like Madras , Bombay and Calcutta   After 5 years they were freed from their massahs With free passages back to Mother India Many got lured with false promises by harkatiyas Of easy jobs in the islands and Guyana   They made homes in Guyana , Trinidad , Jamaica St.Vincent, St. Lucia , Honduras , Guadeloupe Martinique, even Venezuela and tiny Grenada French Cayenne and also in the Dutch groupe   Their hopes and aspirations were shattered By the treatment and racial molestations From the estate owners as they were scattered On the cocoa, corn and sugar plantations   The massahs handled them like cattle And they met a worse humiliating fate Living in long logies of mud and wattle When they bad to face the magistrate   His rights were always met with a denial Any breach of indentureship contract