SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Kamal­dai Nisha Ramkissoon is the 2011 pichaka­ree champ. Ramkissoon, 37, of Sharpe Road, Ca­paro, won the ti­tle for the sec­ond time in a row. She sang Raa­van Ki Raaj at the fi­nal of the com­pe­ti­tion on Sun­day at the Hin­du Prachar Kendra.Ramkissoon beat a field of 11 fel­low con­tes­tants at the Kendra's Ra­goo­nanan Road, Long­denville grounds. She won the ti­tle in 2009 with Cha­lay Tana, and took home the $5,000 prize.In 2010 there was no com­pe­ti­tion.Ramkissoon said Raa­van Ki Raaj com­pared the lifestyle of crime, in­tox­i­ca­tion and oth­er so­cial ills that took place in the days of Ra­van to what was hap­pen­ing in con­tem­po­rary T&T.

She said she was pleased with this year's first prize of $20,000 and was glad to see the gov­ern­ment con­tribut­ing to the art form. The moth­er of two said she en­joyed singing and saw a bright fu­ture for pichaka­ree since it had the abil­i­ty to at­tract more young singers hav­ing sur­vived two decades.The so­cial com­men­tary round was won by Daykalia Ram­nanan who sang Kam­la ki Jadoo. The tra­di­tion­al fes­tive singer ti­tle was won by Toolsie Ram­dass Singh. The best theme singer prize went to Reena Teelucks­ingh who sang What is Mul­ti­cul­ture.

Mo­hip Poon­wassie won prizes for the Cham­pi­on Com­pos­er, Best Cos­tume, most imag­i­na­tive use of Hin­di and best props.Most singers knocked the gov­ern­ment for sup­port­ing chut­ney mu­sic that pro­mot­ed the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol.The Hin­du Prachar Kendra got $200,000 for its an­nu­al Pichaka­ree and Phag­wa cel­e­bra­tions. This is a far cry from the $20,000 the Ch­agua­nas-based or­gan­i­sa­tion re­ceived in 2009.Gi­ta Ram­s­ingh, head of the or­gan­i­sa­tion, said the past 20 years had been one of con­tin­u­ous ex­plo­ration for the or­gan­is­ers.

"The vi­sion of the kendra is well known to many of you. Our founder Sri Rav­i­ji of­ten says to us, the fes­ti­val must serve us. This is why our fo­cus is to recre­ate, to in­ter­pret and give ex­pres­sion to our won­der­ful Hin­du tra­di­tions and fes­ti­vals so that they are rel­e­vant."Ram­s­ingh said pichakaa­ree singers were very ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple who were very con­cerned about the state of cul­ture in T&T.