My name is Charlene Ramdhanie and I am a TV news anchor. I have my moments when I'm a believing Hindu. Even if I can't tell you anything about the Ramayan. I'm drawn to Hinduism, not because of the religious aspects, but the very basic element connected to the Earth, the idea of praying with water or touching a tree to pray. Lighting a deya makes me feel good. I come from a small family: mother, two siblings. My dad died of a heart attack in August 1988. To see the moon come over the Northern Range is soul-satisfying. Maybe it's a Trinidadian thing but you grow up but still don't leave your parents' house to go live on your own. I wouldn't be able enjoy myself out there in the world, thinking I'd left Mom at home alone.
I went to SAGHS. I used to like St Mary's College boys. Something about that light blue shirt and the lighter shade of khaki pants. I love Carnival's energy. 2010 was the first time I played in a big, frontline, "Look at me!" costume. It may be a girly thing but I like feathers. Although, at the end of the day, I looked like a giant chicken in Town. I think Facebook is the scourge of the world right now. This whole idea of putting your life on display. I'm trying to understand it. I'm told some women like being sooted. How many women could really feel good being treated like that? I think Machel Montano is the voice of Carnival and soca. The one aspect of Carnival I don't like is the focus on the body. I'm not one to go to the gym and pass out in the process of exercising.
I'm trying to become a proper vegetarian. It's more of an animal than a Hindu thing. I've been to Tunapuna Market and heard the chickens being slaughtered. I was in a terrible car accident. If I look back at it with dread, the dread was the financial difficulty. Having to pay for private hospitals and physiotherapy. The physical pain wasn't so great back then. Now the physical pain haunts me. I left Couva that night telling a friend I was so tired, because I'd had had such a hard week at work. The last thing I remember was putting on U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me." Until Freeport, when I remember waking up because a car was blowing its horn at me. I remember the road feeling bumpy and opening my eyes and seeing the TriCon sign and thinking, "Ah! I'm not on the road any more." I hit a poui tree. It felt like a wall.
I said to myself, "That's not good! But I'll just lie here and someone will come and get me." I started panicking when I heard the flames and felt the heat from the fire in the car engine. To this day, I can't say for sure who the people were who helped me. I always felt like I was never able to thank them. They could have left me to burn. Doctors didn't think I would learn to walk again. My knee and thigh bones were smashed. It took nine hours of surgery to fix. I had metal inside for a while that felt like razor blades inside my leg. It's frustrating to put on sandals. I can't bend my knee. The scar looks like a big zip down my leg. I'm convinced I will be able to run eventually. But I don't think my orthopaedic surgeon would be pleased to hear that.
I remember watching Peter Jennings on a beach in South Africa and thinking, "Wow! He's part of this moment in history!" That is what drew me to media. I left UWI to do [TV news] reporting. You did six months of voice and other training before you could have done a standup and made it onto air. I did morning news and morning presenting before becoming a primetime news anchor. I don't like making mistakes. If I fumble through one word, I'm upset for the rest of the night. I tell my students at COSTAATT that Sesame Street is television at its best. Whether from the music to the production, it will teach you a lot. Some nights are very draining. When things go wrong. But you're not conscious of reporting bad news. You're focussed on doing your job. The best part of the job is being part of telling people history as it unfolds. I feel the most satisfaction if I've gone out and got the story myself and then presented it live.
The worst part is when you get punched up live and you're fixing your hair. People put it on YouTube. No, the getting ready is the bad bit. It takes a good two hours. A Trini is the person I see on the road that I want to do a story on. I have a love/hate relationship with Trinidad and Tobago and, most days, I probably hate it. Because of the men. Driving through Town, 14-year-old boys will stick their face in the car and say something nasty. I don't think people realise how much that takes away from the soul of the country. Read a longer version of this feature at www.BCRaw.com.