SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Her Ex­cel­len­cy Paula-Mae Weekes ORTT, has praised the Di­vali Na­gar for what she says is its “crit­i­cal role in trans­mit­ting cul­tur­al knowl­edge and cus­toms to a new gen­er­a­tion”.

At the time, Her Ex­cel­len­cy was ad­dress­ing those gath­ered at the Di­vali Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas, on Wednes­day, Oc­to­ber 19.

Pres­i­dent Weekes ob­served that a re­cent me­dia sur­vey on the Na­gar re­vealed that peo­ple saw it as an im­por­tant trans­mit­ter of cul­ture.

Overall Winner of the NCIC dance competition, Priya Persad. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

“It’s a medi­um for cre­at­ing and strength­en­ing tra­di­tions and en­sur­ing that our younger gen­er­a­tions have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn about and ho­n­our their her­itage,” she stat­ed.  “Through a riv­et­ing ex­po­si­tion of his­to­ry and artistry, pa­trons both young and old are giv­en a glimpse in­to the ex­pe­ri­ences and chal­lenges of the in­tre­pid voy­agers who land­ed on our shores start­ing 177 years ago, with their rit­u­als and way of life.”

Winner of the Best Solo Performance award, Amba De Silva. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Her Ex­cel­len­cy said she was im­pressed with and grate­ful to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), which worked through­out the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic to keep tra­di­tions alive. 

“The spir­it of the Na­gar re­mained avail­able for pub­lic con­sump­tion, pan­dem­ic or no pan­dem­ic,” she point­ed out.  “Dur­ing that pe­ri­od, the usu­al fes­tiv­i­ties were repack­aged and de­liv­ered in a dig­i­tal for­mat al­low­ing pa­trons to [en­joy] an en­ter­tain­ing mix of past per­for­mances and live acts. The dili­gent work and com­mit­ment of the NCIC and its army of vol­un­teers shone a much-need­ed light in the midst of the COVID-19 dark­ness that sur­round­ed us.” 

NGC’s T&T Sweet Tassa perform at the Divali Nagar event on Wednesday 19 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Ac­cord­ing to Pres­i­dent Weekes, said even though the Na­gar was on a vir­tu­al plat­form dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, the in-per­son ex­pe­ri­ence of the Na­gar is some­thing that can nev­er be re­placed.

She not­ed that while peo­ple come to the Na­gar for var­i­ous rea­sons, her rea­son for com­ing to the Na­gar was to view the fi­nals of the dance com­pe­ti­tion.  Teas­ing the or­gan­is­ers, Her Ex­cel­len­cy said if she hadn’t been in­vit­ed by them on the night of the com­pe­ti­tion, she would have come by her­self.

Winners of the Best Group Performance, Bollywood Dance Group. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

The over­all win­ner of the Dance Com­pe­ti­tion was Priya Per­sad, who took home the $10,000 first prize.  The Bol­ly­wood Dance Group won the Best Group Per­former award of $5,000 and Am­ba De Sil­va won the $5,000 Best So­lo Per­for­mance prize.