Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan wants a wall of fame to be erect­ed at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA) where past and present cul­tur­al icons can be im­mor­talised.She was speak­ing at the for­mal ded­i­ca­tion on Tues­day night of the Sun­dar Popo Ba­ho­ra The­atre at SAPA, named in ho­n­our of chut­ney pi­o­neer Sun­dar Popo.Many vil­lagers from Popo's Mon­key Town, Bar­rack­pore, com­mu­ni­ty at­tend­ed the event and wept as the ded­i­ca­tion plaque was un­veiled.

Popo's wife Keyso, 70, said she was grate­ful her hus­band's name was im­mor­talised.Popo, who died in May 2000 from di­a­betes, pop­u­larised chut­ney mu­sic by pro­duc­ing more than 400 songs from 1970 un­til his death.Seep­er­sad-Bachan said Popo in­spired many bud­ding artistes and while he "cre­olised" chut­ney mu­sic, he re­mained hum­ble and char­i­ta­ble.She said a wall of fame at SAPA would be an in­spi­ra­tion to many artistes who have con­tin­ued to be cul­tur­al am­bas­sadors of T&T.

"I look for­ward to the day when we can ho­n­our all our cul­tur­al icons such as Black Stal­in, and in­clud­ing oth­ers like James Lee Wah, Ras Shorty I, the painters, po­ets, artistes and ar­ti­sans, singers and steel­bands­men, on a wall of fame right here at SAPA, which would com­ple­ment the the­atre. In this way we will ho­n­our the past while in­spir­ing fu­ture gen­er­a­tions," Seep­er­sad-Bachan said.Keyso said she want­ed the road where Popo once lived to be re­named in his ho­n­our.His pop­u­lar hits in­clud­ed Nan­ny and Nan­na, Scor­pi­on Gyul, Oh My Lover, Don't Fall in Love and Saas More Lage.