Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Life­guards pa­trolled the Mos­qui­to Creek for the first time yes­ter­day, as thou­sands of de­vout Hin­dus flocked to the sea to cel­e­brate the Hin­du fes­ti­val of Kaar­tik-ke-Na­haan. Se­nior life­guard and pa­trol cap­tain Mukesh Jod­han said an es­ti­mat­ed 4,000 peo­ple vis­it­ed Mos­qui­to Creek yes­ter­day to per­form poo­ja. He said many of the Hin­dus wad­ed in­to the Gulf of Paria to plant flags and to make of­fer­ings to the Hin­du God­dess of the Sea, Moth­er Gan­ga. They then dipped in­to the sea to take a spir­i­tu­al bath that would sym­bol­i­cal­ly cleanse them of their sins. "The Min­istry of Tourism, in light of this, has pro­vid­ed prop­er se­cu­ri­ty for the peo­ple, so we are here to make sure that no­body ex­pe­ri­ences any prob­lems in the wa­ter," Jod­han said.

He ex­plained, how­ev­er, that the life­guard pa­trols will not con­tin­ue as it was arranged on­ly be­cause of the Hin­du fes­ti­val. An­oth­er life­guard, Kevin Ger­vais, said they were usu­al­ly sta­tioned at Ves­signy Beach. He not­ed that more life­guards were dis­patched to oth­er ar­eas where Hin­dus flocked to pay homage to the sea. Mean­while, vice-pres­i­dent of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha and pres­i­dent of the Pun­dit's Parishad, Bhadase See­ta­hal Ma­haraj, said the fes­ti­val had ex­pand­ed over the past few years. He not­ed that usu­al­ly Hin­dus made a three-hour jour­ney to Man­zanil­la to per­form their poo­ja.

"We are hap­py now that we can use the fa­cil­i­ties here at Mos­qui­to Creek and get the pro­tec­tion from the life­guards," he said. "We have wa­ter to use, prop­er fa­cil­i­ties and a place where we can do our poo­ja. Kaar­tik has out­grown Man­zanil­la and now we are try­ing to use oth­er places to cel­e­brate the fes­ti­val." Chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Prem­c­hand Sookoo said Kaar­tik was al­so cel­e­brat­ed yes­ter­day at the Quinam Beach, Los Iros Beach in Erin, and at Man­zanil­la. He not­ed that the Cor­po­ra­tion as­sist­ed in set­ting up the fa­cil­i­ties for the cel­e­bra­tion. Sookoo com­mend­ed the life­guards for their dili­gence.