c qoi o jus' ? ki sa sa ki sa yé ?

PANDIT SHARDA SAHAI

SHEILA RAMPERSAD : SUGAR CANE AND SOUKOUYANT STORY

Phantoms of the Cane
by Dr. Sheila Rampersad

From Preface to THE GREEN FACE MAN
by Professor Rosanne Kanhai
ISBN: 976-620-227-3

I was born in the cane fields of Central Trinidad and raised on stories of cane

Among my earliest memories are those of my mother and grandmother cautioning
that, since I had to taxi through the cane fields to get home from school, I was not
to stay out late. After dark, they said, a phantom straddled the cane road; anyone
attempting to pass between his powerful legs was crushed. When the phantom
appeared, pedestrians could not go forward, only backward.

As if that was not terrifying enough, the soucouyant or the la diablesse herself,
accompanied the phantom. My mother never saw the la diablesse herself, but she
told us of her fear on particular nights when, walking along a dark Central road -
one of those straight access roads that quarter the cane fields - she heard a child
crying in the bushes. She looked and looked, through the stubborn stems and in the
long ditches. She found no child, but felt the presence of the la diablesse.

The soucouyant, according to my grandmother, was one of our neighbours - an old
woman, Miss L - whose movements were suspiciously brisk for her age. At nights,
she pulled off her own skin in favor of the soucouyant's translucent peel and flew
into village homes to suck people's blood to make her strong and youthful. Many
nights my sisters and I stayed awake, salt in hand, waiting to throw it at the flying
soucouyant. The next morning, according to my grandmother, we would see the
burn marks on Miss L. On those nights Ma stayed awake long after we fell asleep,
and in the morning we would see clumps of salt in a protective ring around the
house.

As I entered my teenage years, book-learning confronted folklore. The cane fields
became a place of literary romance. My favorite literature teacher spoke tenderly of
the Central landscape, preparing me to appreciate Samuel Selvon's world of the
cane as one of nobility, drudgery, and bitterness. When she taught V.S. Naipaul, it
was as if she was in the middle of acres of young cane, spreading her arms into the
dry season wind and claiming every sharp stalk, every light flower, every speck of
soot.

Cane has inspired the creativity of many Caribbean writers, Samuel Selvon and
V.S. Naipaul entered the belly of cane with literary genius. Feroze and JoJo, the
Adamic Indian and African, have their first encounter in the cane fields of Earl
Lovelace's Salt. Derek Walcott's Saddhu of Couva sits amidst cane, listening to the
Anopheles' drone as that of the sitar.

MUSIC VIDEOS TO EASE YOUR PRESSURE

Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with
controlling pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure.

So, just click and listen!

■ HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA

• Bansuri flute
• Raga Bhopali with Pdt Shiv Kumar
• Raga jog with Ustad Sabir Khan on tabla
• Live with Subhash Dhunoohchand

■ PRASAD BHANDARKAR : BAMBOO FLUTE SITE

• Raga Shivranjani on Bansuri

■ PANDIT BHIMSEN JOSHI

• Raag Darbari Kanada - Drut teental
• Yaman Kalyan with Dr Balamurali Krishna
  

■ RAVI SHANKAR, SITAR

• On the Dick Cavett Show
• Raga Rangeela Piloo
• Rag Charukeshi with Alla Rakha

■ ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

• Concert for George

■  ASHWIN BATISH : SITAR MANIA

■ JIT SAMAROO :  PAN IN A MINOR

■ RAVI AND ANOUSHKA SHANKAR : RAGA RANJEELA PILOO

■ ZUBIN METHA TRIBUTE

■ J.S. BACH

• Toccata and Fugue in D minor
• On steel-pan

■ BEETHOVEN

• Symphony No. 9 : Part 1
• Part 2
• Symphony No. 5 - Part 1
• Part 2
• Piano concerto no 4, 3rd movement
• Moonlight Sonata
• Moonlight Sonata on Pan !
• Fur Elise

■ MOZART

• Piano Concerto No. 21 K.467 - 2nd Mvt
• Allegro of Symphony 41 in C Major
• Piano Sonata C Major K.330 3rd Movement
• Symphony No.40 1st Movement

■ RAVEL

• Bolero

■ MASTER CONDUCTOR JEFFREY TATE (INF0)

■ WRITES OUR GOOD FRIEND DEOSARAN FROM TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    When I arrived in New Jersey, I took a liking to the Classical music played in our offices. It has been established that soothing melodious music helps in concentration, health, productivity, and lifestyle.

    In fact, the mantra for Classical music promoters was "Classical music makes you smarter". That's stretching it, but I can tell you from personal experience that life is much more enjoyable, soothing, calmer, serene, and you can be extremely productive, and you work much harder, and for longer hours, with classical music in the background. I have it on all the time, 24/7.

    The downside - if you can call it that- is that you have almost zero tolerance for loud, jarring music.

    Fortunately, you don't need to buy music - it's FREE !

    YouTube has thousands of classical pieces - of the East like Shankar, Sharma, Joshi, Chaurasia et al, and West like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach et al. 

    Enjoy. Share.

    In Trinidad, there was a time when many steel orchestras (or Steelbands, although Orchestra seems more apt) played classical music - I remember Catelli All Stars etc.

    From what I observe today, pan music, and what's left of calypso, survive only because the State, and some business entities,  pay the artistes to perform; it is State-subsidised in the Land of Steelband and Calypso.

    But, we will not leave out steel pan - included in the playlist are pieces on pan, too.

   Deosaran Bisnath

 
■ RESEARCH HAS IT...

    Houston (PTI) : According to researchers at the American Society of Hypertension's 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008), patients with mild hypertension who listened to just half an hour of classical, Celtic or Indian raga music a day for four weeks experienced significant reductions in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP).

    "Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure," said study investigator, Prof Pietro A Modesti, Professor of Internal Medicine in the University of Florence in Italy...

    But for the first time, today's results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ABP. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option, or a complement to therapy."

    At first, the patients wore a device that tracked their blood pressure for 24 hours.
   
    Next, they were given a CD of classical, Celtic, or Indian music.

    Top Photo : J.S. Sahai ©2008.

 

BHOJPURI CULTURE IN CHUTNEY MUSIC

Music of Indo-Caribbean Culture : Influences of Bhojpuri Culture in Chutney Music
It seems not much has changed since the time our Ancestors left ! (info courtesy Jon Budram).
Many Chutney Songs are traditional Bhojpuri Folk Songs or are influenced by them. Check this interesting Song : see if you can identify the Song or a few Chutney tracks of this Music Video and if they share the same musical composition.   Songs more than 100-150 years old are still in popular use within the Indo-Caribbean Music field and they all trace their roots back to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India.

Have a look at the instruments as well which are used in India and the Caribbean.
The Harmonium oddly enough is actually of European origin and was imported to India whereas nowadays it is more associated with Indian music. 

SITTING MUSIC
Known in Trinidad and Guyana as "tãn-singing" or "local-classical music" and in Suriname as "baithak gãna" ("sitting music"), tãn-singing has evolved into a unique idiom, embodying the rich poetic and musical heritage brought from India as modified by a diaspora group largely cut off from its ancestral homeland...

Book : East Indian Music in the West Indies : Tân-Singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture by Peter Manuel. Includes a CD - see info HERE.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO : MUNGAL PATASAR


TABLER MASTER PANDIT SHARDA SAHAI  SITE
Guruji is one of the undisputed legendary pillars of modern tabla.

BURNING TOPICALITY

SUPER ! GANDHI VIDEOS !

• Gandhigiri keeps ashram alive | Video
• Gandhigiri makes desert green | Video
• GANDHI Videos : 20 hrs footage, 120 hrs film of Gandhi and India. Footage | Oral History | Video Library | MAHATMA - Life of Gandhi - 5 hrs doc. film | Gandhi @ Google Video.

CREOLE-TAMOUL REUNION

Lexique du créole à dominante tamoule
par Firmin Lacpatia
Azalées éditions

  160 pages | 14 x 21 cm | 209 g
Dépôt légal | 1er semestre 2005
Numéro ISBN | 2-9520832-5-8

      

Firmin Lacpatia recense les termes et les expressions du créole réunionnais qui sont d'origine tamoule ou qui ont transités par l'Inde.

Plus précisément, cet ouvrage se concentre sur l'apport lexical Indien dans les deux langues réunionnaises, français et créole.

Des apports qui ont donné par exemple : carry volaille, rougail, goni ou caria.

Ce livre sera d'une grande utilité pour les férus de linguistique comparée.

HAROLD SONNY LADOO

  Harold Sonny Ladoo : Nulle douleur comme ce corps, Editions Les Allusifs.

  Grandiose et triste à la fois, cet ouvrage d'un auteur caribéen mort trop tôt, comme un chien. Nous sommes au début du 20ème siècle, dans une des îles à sucre anglophones de la Caraïbe ou des enfants indiens, descendants des pauvres hères dits coolies qui remplacèrent les esclaves, s'étripent et se font étriper par leur père inconsistant, dans une saga faite de souffrance et de colère omniprésentes, en se confrontant avec une rage de survivre en s'accrochant...

  C'est le partage de cette noirceur de vie du début du vingtième siècle sous ce soleil féroce des Antilles;  d'une existence misérable, rythmée par l'eau de la pluie, la rizière, les cris, les larmes;  de l'énervement et de l'agacement de ces petites gens écrasées par le malheur, qui cultivent le riz nourricier mais souffrent l'alcoolisme intempestif d'un père bagarreur et mari incompétent, de la violence des éléments, de l'étroitesse du groupe humain aussi.

Harold Sonny Ladoo n'y va pas de main molle. Il l'a connue, la douleur explosive, mal contenue du corps humain, du corps sociétal, et celle évidemment qu'il porta dans son corps écœuré d'auteur. L'univers est en guerre contre l'homme, les éléments sont sans pitié. Vent, pluie, rizière en crue, désespérance intérieure aboyante, tout concourt à générer entre les personnages une archaïque douleur de vivre et une infantile phobie de l'écrasement - les bêtes, diables, dieux et bon dieu, esprits maléfiques étant aussi omniprésents dans ce vacarme.

  Nulle douleur comme ce corps sera pour beaucoup la révélation d'un aspect brûlant et trop méconnu : la cruelle existence, la folle épopée des descendants d'engagés indiens dans les plantations des Caraïbes... Entre autres raisons de cette carence en témoignages sur la vie indienne dans la littérature caribéenne, citons en deux - l'omniprésence de la plainte inexpurgée de l'esclave noir au prétoire de l'histoire, et la timidité de l'indien caribéen quant à extravertir sa propre souffrance, lui réputé surtout contemplatif et productif face au malheur et à l'outrage, et réservé par décence envers ceux qui ont souffert comme lui, avant lui.

  Une vie comme celle brève et intense d'Harold Sonny Ladoo lui-même, dont le nom indien, laddhu, ironie du sort, désigne une boulette de sucrerie indienne très prisée. Né à Trinidad en 1945, il émigre comme tant de milliers d'autres avant et après lui, fuyant une vie médiocre sans grand lendemain, pour commencer une autre existence au Canada. Là, sa vie d'écrivain se doublera de celle d'un père qui doit travailler la nuit pour faire vivre sa famille. Mais tenté par on ne sait quel démon du retour, Harold Sonny Ladoo repart pour Trinidad où il se fait assassiner et jeter dans un caniveau en 1973.

  Harold Sonny Ladoo nous laisse ainsi aux prises avec les inconnues intimes de sa motivation de romancier. La part du témoignage et de l'autobiographie, de l'interrogation sur le parcours sauvagement raccourci du percutant artiste peintre en lettres pèse sans nul doute dans Nulle douleur comme ce corps. La vie de ces êtres harassés, abandonnés des Dieux... la carrière de romancier inachevée, brisée par le malheur... le parallèle reste à explorer.

  Par la simplicité sans cadeau d'un style sans complaisance ni pardon, Harold Sonny Ladoo pousse à fond la stupéfiante totalité de son regard dans l'abrupt abîme de cette épreuve de vivre, qui transparaît aussi dans celle de la traduction.

  Nécessaire et courageuse entreprise pour commencer à combler l'ignorance du public francophone, surtout antillais, encore bien démuni sur un aspect incontournable de son histoire : la souffrance indienne dans les Caraïbes...

  Jean S. Sahaï, Guadeloupe.

   Nulle douleur comme ce corps • Harold Sonny Ladoo • Traduit de l'anglais par Marie Flouriot et Stanley Péan • Éd. Les Allusifs, Montréal • 2006 • ISBN 2-922868-38-9 • 13.00 €.

COOLIES : HOW BRITAIN REINVENTED SLAVERY

COOLIES :
HOW BRITAIN REINVENTED SLAVERY

The slave trade was officially abolished throughout the British Empire in 1807.

This documentary reveals one of Britain's darkest secrets : a form of slavery that continued well into the 20th century - the story of Indian indentured labour.

Coolies : How Britain Reinvented Slavery - VIDEO

Indentured workers from North India. 

INDIAN SARI - FASHIONING THE FEMALE FORM

www.sarimagic.com

---

The Indian Sari - Fashioning the Female Form

by Nitin Kumar
Editor
http://www.exoticindia.com 

Legend has it that when the beauteous Draupadi - wife of the Pandavas, was lost to the Kauravas in a gambling duel, the lecherous victors, intent on humiliating and harassing Draupadi, caught one end of the diaphanous material that draped her demurely, yet seductively. They continued to pull and unravel, but could not reach the end, and thus undrape her. Virtue triumphed yet again in this 5,000 year old Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Legend, fantasy, history or fact, it is the first recorded reference to the enduringly attractive Sari - the longest running 'in fashion' item of feminine apparel in the world.

In a metaphysical sense the Kauravas symbolize the forces of chaos and destruction, trying to unwind what is in effect, infinity. They are finally forced to stop, frustrated and defeated.

A charming folktale explains the origin of the Sari as follows:       

"The Sari, it is said, was born on the loom of a fanciful weaver. He dreamt of Woman. The shimmer of her tears. The drape of her tumbling hair. The colors of her many moods. The softness of her touch. All these he wove together. He couldn't stop. He wove for many yards. And when he was done, the story goes, he sat back and smiled and smiled and smiled".      

Indian myths often use weaving as a metaphor for the creation of the universe. The sutra or spun thread was the foundation, while the sutradhara (weaver) or holder of the thread was viewed as the architect or creator of the universe.

The etymology of the word sari is from the Sanskrit word 'sati', which means strip of cloth. This evolved into the Prakrit 'sadi' and was later anglicised into sari.

 

There is ample evidence of the sari in the earliest examples of Indian art. Sculptures from the Gandhara, Mathura and Gupta schools (1st- 6th century AD), suggest that the sari in its earlier form was a briefer garment, with a veil, and usually no discernable bodice.

 

There are also several references to the fact that in South India the sari had been for a long time one piece of material that served as both skirt and veil, leaving the bosom bare. Even today in some rural areas it is quite common for a woman not to wear a choli.

 

In extant North Indian miniature paintings, (particularly Jain, Rajasthani and Pahari schools from the 13th to the 19th centuries) it seems to consist of the diaphanous skirt and an equally diaphanous veil draped over a tiny bodice. This style still survives as the more voluminous lehanga of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

      

 

 

 

 

Gradually this skirt and veil were amalgamated into one garment, but when and how this happened is not precisely clear. One theory, not fully substantiated, is that the style was created by Noor Jahan (d. 1645) wife of the Mughal emperor Jehangir (reigned. 1605-27). Perhaps it would be more accurate to speculate that the confrontation between the two cultures, Islamic and Hindu, led the comparatively relaxed Hindus to develop a style that robed the person more discreetly and less precariously.

Some costume historians believe that the men's dhoti, which is the oldest Indian draped garment, is the forerunner of the sari. Till the 14th century the dhoti was worn by both men and women. Thereafter it is conjectured that the women's dhoti started to become longer, and the accessory cloth worn over the shoulders was woven together with the dhoti into a single cloth to make the sari.

Indian civilization has always placed a tremendous importance on unstitched fabrics like the sari and dhoti, which are given sacred overtones. The belief was that such a fabric was pure; perhaps because in the distant past needles of bone were used for stitching. Hence even to the present day, while attending pujas or other sacred ceremonies, the men dress up in dhotis while women wear the sari. Thus even though the different waves of Islamic expansion (13th - 19th century AD) resulted in new versions of stitched garments, the primacy of the sari and its gently changing form couldn't be changed. Even today, when the Islam influenced Salwar-kameez (loose trousers with a tunic) is an increasingly popular garment, the Sari continues to hold its sway. The flow it confers to the natural contours of the female form enhances the gracefulness of the fairer sex, as no other apparel can.

      

 

The Sari, like so many other textiles, gives the lie to the hierarchical distinction made between fine arts and crafts. The approximate size of a sari is 47 by 216 inches. Although it is an untailored length of cloth, the fabric is highly structured and its design vocabulary very sophisticated. The main field of the sari is framed on three sides by a decorative frieze of flowering plants, figurative images or abstract symbols.

Two of the borders define the edges of the length of the sari and the third comprises the end piece, which is a visible, broader, more complex version of the other two borders. This end piece is the part of the sari that is draped over the shoulder and left to hang over the back or front, known popularly as the Pallav.

The pallav usually elaborates the theme found in the two borders and the actual field of the sari, a sort of repetition and amplification in the manner of the Indian musical mode, the raga. The raga has a set number of notes and these are intoned in a form of verbal mnemonics, before the song is actually sung. No new notes other than those in the introduction are used, but improvisation is allowed and results in endless permutations and combinations. This beautiful metaphor thus compares the two narrow borders to the introductory recital of the pure notes and the pallav to the song.

 

      

 

 

The design, whether woven, embroidered, painted or block-printed, needs to maintain the proportion and balance between the actual field of the sari, the borders and the pallav. The pattern creates its own rhythm. For instance, the scattering of spot weft gold dots increase in the pallav for a denser, richer pattern and gradually and softly decrease on the actual ground of the sari.

Pattern and content are often dictated by the traditions of the region where the sari is produced. The great sari capitals are Varanasi (Banaras), by the sacred river Ganga, Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh and Kanjivaram in South India.

 

 

 

      

 

 

Banaras is renowned for its silk and gold brocades. The weavers who are usually Muslims, are famed for producing brocades so stiff with gold that they cannot be used as garments and are reserved wholly for ritual use. The Banaras sari itself is ubiquitous in India. No bridal trousseau would be complete without a 'Banarasi' brocade which is available within a broad price range. Along with their very intricate patterns, the most interesting aspect of Banaras brocades is the tremendous variety of silk yarns with which they are woven. Ranging from heavy silks such as 'Jamawars' and 'Tanchois' to gossamer fine organzas and tissues, the choice is mind-boggling.

 

 

 

 

HOME, FROM INDIA TO JAMAICA

Home away from home: 150 years of Indian presence in Jamaica, 1845-1995
by Mansingh, Laxmi ; Mansingh, Ajai.

Home Away From Home: 150 Years of Indian Presence in Jamaica 1845-1995
Laxmi Mansingh and Ajai Mansingh  

The first immigrants from India arrived in Jamaica in 1845 under indentureship contracts to work on the sugar plantations. Today Indo-Jamaicans are to be found in every area of Jamaican cultural, professional, political and spiritual life. But the Indians remain a much misunderstood part of Jamaican society - viewed by the predominantly Christian society as heathen and generally thought of as passive and uneducated. This book is written to correct the many misconceptions about Indians and to highlight their significant contributions to Jamaican life.

1999 • 160 pages • 8 x 10½ • ISBN 976-8123-38-9
Paperback • US $24.95
ISBN 976-8123-39-7 Hardback US$40.00

Seeks to correct the many misconceptions about Indians and to highlight their significant contributions to Jamaican life. Argues that the first immigrants from India arrived in Jamaica in 1845 under indentureship contracts to work on the sugar plantations.

Today, Indo-Jamaicans are to be found in every area of Jamaican cultural, professional, political and spiritual life.

But the Indians remain a much-misunderstood part of Jamaican society, viewed by predominantly Christian society as heathen and generally thought of as passive and uneducated...