SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Mon­day night mas in Cou­va was de­scribed as the best cel­e­bra­tions of its kind in Cen­tral by Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh. He was at the time ad­dress­ing rev­ellers and mem­bers of the pub­lic who packed the Cou­va pub­lic car park. In­dars­ingh said the car park was one of the few venues that pa­trons could come out and see full cos­tumes on a Mon­day night. He al­so praised res­i­dents of the area for com­ing out and sup­port­ing re­gion­al cel­e­bra­tions.

He said this was a good sign that re­gion­al car­ni­vals were grow­ing, as more and more peo­ple choose to stay in their home town and en­joy the cel­e­bra­tions. Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj, chair­man of the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee, said re­gion­al car­ni­vals need­ed more cor­po­rate sup­port. He said bands in Cen­tral were com­ing out big­ger and bet­ter every year, as more and more elab­o­rate cos­tumes took to the stages.

Cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship of re­gion­al cel­e­bra­tions, said Maraj, could well serve as an ad­ver­tis­ing ini­tia­tive for busi­ness­es that choose to pump mon­ey in­to Car­ni­val. The first band to cross the stage was the tra­di­tion­al jab jab band from Cou­va, along with Harold Braith­wait­he who played a mid­night rob­ber.

Sword and As­so­ciates, Cen­tral Elite, Chase Vil­lage and As­so­ciates and New Di­men­sions proved to be some of the more elab­o­rate bands to cross the stage. The Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee al­so treat­ed pa­trons to a dis­play of stick-fight­ing and judged the Car­ni­val Kings and Queens on that night.