Shas­tri Boodan

The Bago In­di­an Cul­tur­al So­ci­ety host­ed In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions in To­ba­go on Sat­ur­day. Pres­i­dent of the so­ci­ety, Rayan Ra­moutar, said the or­gan­i­sa­tion was part of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha, T&T's largest Hin­du body. Cel­e­bra­tions took place at the Le Grand Courlan Re­sort. Ra­moutar said her dream was to see the var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions rep­re­sent­ing peo­ple of In­di­an ori­gin in To­ba­go unite un­der one um­brel­la.

She said in the last five years, more To­bag­o­ni­ans had start­ed to ap­pre­ci­ate more as­pects of In­di­an cul­ture, oth­er than In­di­an cui­sine alone. She said To­ba­go had a lot of tal­ent which could be nur­tured to con­tribute to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. "We need to boost the ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties in To­ba­go," Ra­moutar said. "We need tourism as well as oth­er av­enues that would bring growth to the is­land...With eco­nom­ic growth comes av­enues for more cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment."