My name is Captin Doubles and I am a suburban doubles man. My real name is Shivananad Ramgagasar but everybody calls me "Captain". And my best customers call me "Cap". I'm originally from Sangre Grande. I don't want to say we were "dirt poor" but we were "real poor". Most days, there was no money to go to school. So we walked nearly three miles to Sangre Grande Hindu School. When I was in Form Five, my mom and dad broke up and so I left school to take care of my brother. He was about five and I see the need for him to go to school. So I stop mines. My wife family sell doubles as well, and they had the name "Captain" for a long while now. So my "Captin" is spelled different. Some people might say, "He can't spell!" We live in extended family, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother- and sister-in-law, a lot of children, all under one roof. If you read A House of Mr Biswas, is like the Lion House.
I give people chances. But I'm not a raffle sheet. I don't believe God have a plan for all of us. I believe God give man the right to think and, when he did that, he give up his right to think for man. If a man decide to crash his car and kill himself, I don't think that was predestined. I think that was stupidity. If a man crash a plane into a tower, I can't see God in that at all. My beautiful wife, Annie, is my strength. Our adorable son is Krishna, the light of our business. We are happy with our one. It was a life-and-death situation, so we not going back down that road. Annie does the majority of everything, channa, barra, sauces. I mostly do the selling. She's the manufacturer. I'm the distributor.
We have a self-service cashing system in effect. I wouldn't buy from someone if I see they handling both the food and the money. So I wouldn't want that for my customers. I want my doubles business to be a tourist attraction. I want them to say, "Hey, I went by a doubles man in Trinidad and he had an automatic sensor bin." I want other doubles and street food vendors to see we can take it to a higher level. There are no problems in life, just challenges. Problems is for mathematics. Teacher put them on the board. If I go down the road and see 15 cars park up bad to buy doubles from some barra man, it upsets me. It's the drivers' fault, but the doubles man should tell them, "You can't park like that." But you cannot change Trinidadians, so I find a spot where they could park, and still have a traffic flow.
My motion sensor dustbin is not a show-off thing. It's a cleanliness thing. With a self-service cashing system, mistakes are there to be made. But sometimes they are deliberate mistakes. Many people in this country just can't check. Or maybe is early morning, they brain not functioning, but I try to make it simple as possible: Put $20, take $16 change if you had one doubles. I lost a customer because he find I shouldn't tell him, "Don't throw nothing in the river". But say what? I rather lose the customer than the river. If rain fall, I wouldn't sell doubles? If I was working for a company, I'd have to get my skin to work on time. Well, I'm working for a company. My company. I might be Captin but I'm working for Captin Doubles. All work and no play is madness.
I love Bob Marley. And David Rudder is a scholar. You could do a university degree on their lyrics. Life is real simple. But religious and political leaders make it confusing. Most days, I'm finished by half-past nine, ten o'clock. The most busiest period is six to half-past-six and then again from 8.30 am to 9 am. We have a call-in and drive-through service. You call, place your order, drive through and collect. Without leaving your car. In two-three cars, you back on the road. Rain falling bucket-a-drop, people still buy doubles. When man hungry, they hungry. I always tell my staff, "It is nice to be nice and you become nice when you be nice". I don't think they understand, though. They say, "He real nice!"
I go to bed half-nine, ten o'clock in the night. And wake up two in the morning. I love doubles. My wife say I shouldn't be eating so many. So I'm eating singles now. Is just that I'm eating six singles instead of three doubles. The best part about the job is meeting people, treating them nice and seeing them leave happy. The bad side is the one or two "hog-norant" customers who want to upset your day. The state of emergency is a reactive approach to crime. Why has crime reached so bad we have to have a state of emergency to control it? Something should have been in place long before now. Why 50 people have to drive off a road before we put a barricade? A Trini is somebody who like to party. If you give them the weekend for four days, they happy. They enjoy everything: Divali; Christmas; Carnival. Anything name "lime", we in that! Trinidad and Tobago is my home. My forefathers might be Indian. I am Trinidadian.
Read a longer version of this feature at www.BCRaw.com