An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Chut­ney mu­sic icon Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine and vet­er­an singer Dru­patie Ram­goon­ai were among the cul­tur­al stal­warts ho­n­oured on Sat­ur­day night at the in­au­gur­al Aag­man In­di­an Food Fes­ti­val at the Hilton Trinidad.

This event cel­e­brat­ed In­di­an Ar­rival Day through mu­sic, food, her­itage and phil­an­thropy.

Host­ed by Meena House own­er and chef Umesh Meena, the fes­ti­val al­so recog­nised In­do-Caribbean Cul­tur­al Cen­tre ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Dr Ku­mar Ma­habir for his con­tri­bu­tion to pre­serv­ing the his­to­ry of In­di­an in­den­ture­ship. At the same time, pi­o­neer­ing mu­si­cian Mun­gal Patasar was ho­n­oured for his role in blend­ing In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic with Caribbean rhythms.

A sig­nif­i­cant fea­ture of the evening was its char­i­ta­ble com­po­nent.

Meena an­nounced that a por­tion of tick­et sales would be do­nat­ed to the Rapid Fire Kidz Foun­da­tion, which sup­ports chil­dren in need across T&T.

“Now, I want to share some­thing close to my heart. This event is tick­et­ed, and a por­tion of the pro­ceeds this evening will go di­rect­ly to the Rapid Fire Kidz Foun­da­tion, an in­cred­i­ble or­gan­i­sa­tion com­mit­ted to im­prov­ing the lives of chil­dren across Trinidad and To­ba­go who are in need,” Meena told pa­trons.

Re­flect­ing on the fes­ti­val’s sig­nif­i­cance, Meena not­ed that In­di­an Ar­rival Day rep­re­sents “a jour­ney of courage, of sac­ri­fice and of be­long­ing,” adding that launch­ing Aag­man at the Hilton Trinidad marked a full-cir­cle mo­ment af­ter years serv­ing there as ex­ec­u­tive chef.

Coun­cil­lor Richard Ram­per­sad, chair­man of the Na­tion­al Mu­se­um and Art Gallery, wel­comed the ini­tia­tive.

“I’m aware that part of the pro­ceeds of this event go to the Rapid Fire Kidz Foun­da­tion. So com­ing here and sup­port­ing this ini­tia­tive is sup­port­ing char­i­ty and it’s sup­port­ing hu­man­i­tar­i­an work.”

Ram­per­sad al­so point­ed to the grow­ing num­ber of ac­tiv­i­ties mark­ing In­di­an Ar­rival Day.

“I have seen a sig­nif­i­cant in­crease in events cen­tred around In­di­an Ar­rival Day and com­mem­o­rat­ing this very sig­nif­i­cant hol­i­day. I know the Prime Min­is­ter has her event in Pe­nal. It’s a com­mem­o­ra­tive event and a fam­i­ly day.”

For Ram­nar­ine, the award was an­oth­er mile­stone in a ca­reer that has tak­en chut­ney and chut­ney so­ca mu­sic to au­di­ences world­wide.

“Re­ceiv­ing this award, just like so many awards, I take this as an in­spi­ra­tion to work even hard­er. I re­alise that now the mass­es are ap­pre­ci­at­ing our mu­sic and re­al­ly ap­pre­ci­ate what I do,” he told Guardian Me­dia.

“I’m us­ing mu­sic as an in­stru­ment to bring love through­out the world, and that is what my mu­sic is about. It’s not about fame, it’s not about the bright lights, it’s about a mes­sage and a pur­pose in life.”

He al­so stressed the need to pro­mote lo­cal cul­tur­al prod­ucts.

“Chut­ney mu­sic, chut­ney so­ca mu­sic, and Bol­ly­wood mu­sic, as you can see, it’s so rich, it’s so alive. This is some­thing that we have, and we are so blessed with, so I think this is some­thing that we have to mar­ket and mar­ket very wise­ly, Ram­nar­ine added.

Ram­goon­ai ex­pressed grat­i­tude for the recog­ni­tion.

“It’s a plea­sure for me to re­ceive this. I am so hap­py that I can re­ceive this, es­pe­cial­ly on this spe­cial day.”

She en­cour­aged as­pir­ing per­form­ers, not­ing, “They have a lot of good singing stu­dents com­ing up. I know a few of them, and they sing so well,” the singer con­clud­ed.