Di­vali Na­gar 2012 be­gins on No­vem­ber 4. This was an­nounced when the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) dis­trib­uted $375,000 in prizes for the In­de­pen­dence Lo­cal Song and In­di­an Clas­si­cal Singing com­pe­ti­tions at the Di­vali Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas. Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, the NCIC pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer said this year's Na­gar would be based on the theme Shri Raam Bhakt and run for nine days. He said a Ra­mayan Yagna or re­li­gious prayer ser­vice that pre­cedes the Na­gar would com­mence on Oc­to­ber 24 and cul­mi­nate on Oc­to­ber 30.

The NCIC?will al­so un­veil a bronze bust of the late In­di­an Bha­jan or de­vo­tion­al song singer Hari Om Sha­ran on Oc­to­ber 30. Sha­ran who died in 2007 in In­dia per­formed sev­er­al times on Di­vali Na­gar stage. Nan­di­ni Sha­ran, the singer's wid­ow will vis­it Trinidad for the un­veil­ing. Mooni­lal Gild­hari and Mo­hip Poon­wassie copped the top prizes in the In­di­an Clas­si­cal Singing com­pe­ti­tion and the Lo­cal Song cat­e­go­ry re­spec­tive­ly. Gild­harie re­ceived the $100,000 first prize while Poon­wassie col­lect­ed $30,000. The prize mon­ey award­ed to the win­ners of the clas­si­cal singing com­pe­ti­tion was the high­est ever paid in the his­to­ry of In­di­an clas­si­cal singing in this coun­try. Gild­harie, 59, of Spring Vil­lage, Clax­ton Bay, said he was elat­ed to see that mon­ey was be­ing pumped in­to clas­si­cal singing in a bid to at­tract younger singers.

De­ok­ien­anan Shar­ma, the head of the NCIC, said he was pleased to see a mas­sive turnout for the semi­fi­nals and fi­nals of the event in an al­co­hol free at­mos­phere. Shar­ma said there were some in­di­vid­u­als who be­lieved that such a com­pe­ti­tion could not take place un­less al­co­holic bev­er­ages were be­ing served. Shar­ma said in the 25-year his­to­ry of the Na­gar, al­co­hol has been banned from the premis­es. He said al­co­hol con­tributes im­mense­ly to a num­ber of so­cial prob­lems in the lo­cal In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty while per­sons who at­tend events in a state of drunk­en stu­por can cre­ate awk­ward in­ci­dents.

Win­ners

Clas­si­cal Song

1st Mooni­lal Gild­harie ($100,000)

2nd Mo­han Sookram ($50,000)

3rd Bal­li­ram Ram­rop ($30,000)

4th Vee­jai Ramkissoon ( $25,000)

Lo­cal Song

1st Mo­hip Poon­wassie ($30,000)

2nd Kamal­dai Ramkissoon ($25,000)

3rd Shiv­an Pha­goo ($20,000)

4th Jagdeo Pha­goo ($15,000)

Best Dhan­tal Play­er Sunil Ramkissoon ($3,500).

Best Dho­lak Play­er Rishi Rag­bir ($7,000).

All un­placed con­tes­tants in both cat­e­gories re­ceived $5,000. each.