The days leading up to Divali

It seems as if I am bit lazy about blogging now. I noticed that the blogs I read are also in the same problems. All of a sudden, life has picked up and is whirling around. At the beginning of the year, i thought that time was moving so so slowly and now, i feel as if it is passing like lightning! I spent another entire day at work and i am just about ready to leave and all the deliveries are coming in now. Fuming!
Tomorrow Ami is performing in the Divali show at the mandir. Originally I wanted him to sing a ghazal but he ended up choosing the bhajan. I guess it will be more appropriate anyway. I feel happy for him. It has been a while since he performed for a big audience. I asked him last night if he doesn't get scared when he sees the crowd. He said in the beginning he did but he gets lost in what he is doing. Maybe that's the difference between good singers and not so good singers.
Yesterday, I met a Jamaican woman of Indian descent. She was telling me about her family's history in Jamaica. She told me of how her family name got changed from an Indian surname to a British name. She told me that when her great grandparents arrived in Jamaica, they did not know English and when they were asked for their names, the British soldiers could not spell their name so they told them that their new last name was Williams. I heard of how suppressed the culture was in Jamaica and how ashamed she felt when she was little because they used to be laughed at in school when she and her siblings took roti for lunch. Bread was too expensive for them and roti was fast and much cheaper to prepare. She spoke of how she used to try and hide while she ate her lunch at school. I remembered Vidia Naipaul's and Samuel Selvon's books. He captured the mixed feelings of the Indians in the West Indies. The indian community is very very small in Jamaica as compared to the community in Trinidad and Guyana so therefore, they were more oppressed. According to the lady, they were pretty much confined to only two areas of Jamaica and many of them (the Indians in Jamaica) have left.
While Ms. Williams was speaking to me, I found something that we had in common. We were been born in countries where we were considered minorities. Well this is true for Jamaica and Trinidad (up until recently). Now, Trinidad has a slightly larger Indian population than Afro-Trinidadian with them being almost 50% of the population. Mind you, the Trinidad-Afro population is a little more tolerant than in Guyana and Jamaica. Guyana is different. Guyana has a very large indian population but because of a dictatorship in the 70s, the country is now only coming out of that struggle that Forbes Burnham was responsible for. Guyana is more than 10 times the size of Trinidad (i may be exaggerating a little here) and the population is barely 1 million. Trinidad was over 1.3 million the last time i checked. In 1970s Guyana, my mom decided to move to Trinidad because for many Indians, Guyana was not the place one wanted to be. Many say that the problem with Guyana is that people hightailed it out of there. I don't blame people for running. My mom never really speaks of the times in Guyana as much but I learnt from my aunts and other Guyanese people that when Burnham ruled, everything that Indians ate was pretty much banned from the country. My mom once said that they used to make rotis with cassava flour and corn flour because regular wheat flour was banned. Sugar was scarce and so was butter and even curry powder.
In Trinidad, i think we had it easier. Maybe because the population was so condensed in Trinidad and the Indians were allowed more freedom. I am guessing that is why they were able to better preserve their culture than the Indians in Jamaica and to some extent, Guyana. My friend, Ms. Williams only knew how to count from 1-10 in Hindi. She was amazed to find out that we still say our prayers in Hindi and sometimes, Sanskrit.
One very positive thing though is Ms. Williams was able to carry on a very beautiful conversation. She did not feel sorry for herself but she did regret not knowing about her culture. She wants to learn and one is never too old to begin learning. i am guessing that she is more than 2 times my age but she left learning a few things that she did not know. I felt happy for her. She is a very eloquent lady and i found that she never faltered in explaining herself. I liked that. We were able to converse for a while before i realized that it was time for me to go home and for her to get back to her job.

It is a little bit after the Divali show. Ami sang the ghazal and it was beautiful. I recorded some of it on my digicam. The show was nice and the kids enacted Ramlila. It was a very good effort considering that they had to work with two hours and 7 major chapters of the Ramcharitmanasa. Really, it was a splendid job. I like watching Ramlila. There is a lot of symbolism in the Ramayana and I find it very enjoyable to read a certain part whenever I want to and learn something new. My favorite part is when L. Hanuman goes to find Ma Sita in Lanka and Sri Raam gives him his signet ring to show Maa Sita as proof that he is really Raama's messenger. What better place to put the name of Sri Raam than on the tip of one's tongue! It is a book of emotions though. It relates to man and there is no doubt that the lila performed in this incarnation fits man's life. maybe that is why i really love this book so much. Another thing with the Ramayan is that one not only learns of Sri Raam but one also learns of Hanumanji and hears of his glories as well. It's like having chocolate cake with chocolate chips!!!!