Mina Parag lit the wood over the offering of rice and incense in the hawan, and knelt down before a variety of Hindu deities in a small temple in her front yard last Wednesday, to pray for her missing daughter, Riana Parag.
Since 18-year-old Riana went missing after a visit to a flea market in Chaguanas on December 16, Parag has been praying to her gods for her daughter to be returned to her.
Riana last spoke to her sister around 5 pm that day on her cellphone.
"She said she took a taxi at Busy Corner in Chaguanas, and the driver said he was going by the police station to pick up somebody," her 20-year-old sister recalled. "Most likely it was a PH taxi. Mostly PH taxis work in here. "Then she said, 'Oh God', and the phone was cut off." The police, who seem to have reached a dead end in their investigations, told Parag that all she could do was pray and hope her daughter resurfaced somewhere, she said. And that she has been faithfully doing.Every morning and evening she goes into the temple at her Neilson Street, Longdenville, home and prays. "That hawan is always lighting," Parag told the Sunday Guardian during a visit to her home. Parag also has been doing "different prayers and offerings" for Riana, which she said she did not wish to disclose. Last Wednesday, a relative was stirring a concoction in a pot on the stove for "special prayers" later that day.
Spiritual heads give leads
"Spiritual leaders" also have been giving Parag "certain leads" about her missing daughter. They told Parag her daughter was being held by a group of men in a particular place. She was adamant about not disclosing anymore, for fear it caused her daughter's kidnappers to change plans. Searches in that area had come up with nothing, she said.
Search parties, comprising friends and relatives, following any lead, go out almost every evening looking for Riana, Parag said. They assemble at the Parags' home every evening and wait for a "tip-off" from "spiritual leaders" or anybody about where to search. "Since Riana went missing, we searched Chaguanas, Couva, California, Tabaquite, Brasso, Enterprise, but nothing. "We traced all her friends. Riana did two terms at the University of T&T in Port-of-Spain and an On The Job Training programme in Cunupia before she started studies at the School of Business and Computer Studies." These traces gave no clues to her disappearance. Not even a private investigator the family hired could find Riana. Parag said "you can never know," but she's doubtful Riana ran away with a boy. "She had a friend who used to come sometimes, but she said she didn't want a serious relationship. "She said she wanted to get her education before she settled down."
Joy gone
The disappearance of the second of three daughters has turned the Parags' lives upside down. "The weekend before Riana disappeared, we went Tobago for three days. "It was all happiness and laughter, like it usually was in our home. Riana was squirting water on her sisters and tiptoeing on the edge of the pool like a child." Parag said the day after Riana went missing they tore down all the Christmas decorations in their home. All of the family's joy went with Riana, and when the Sunday Guardian visited the home last Wednesday, there was no laughter and no normal family noises. Instead, sadness hung in the air. Parag said they closed the family's small contracting business when Riana disappeared, and her husband reopened it only last week. She said they also stopped sending their 12-year-old daughter to school. A 74-year-old neighbour comes to the Parags' home every evening and cries, Parag said. "He lives alone and Riana used to help him and wash his dishes."
Empty room
The door to Riana's room was shut last Wednesday, and Parag said nobody goes in there, not even her little sister, with whom she shared a double decker bed. "Nobody wants to go in there," she said. "It's like the room does not exist." Riana's schoolbooks were stacked on shelves above a desk and a school timetable was pasted on the wall nearby. Her make-up and jewelry were arranged neatly on a dressing table. Parag opened a small box and stared sadly at a pair of gold bracelets she had bought for Riana for Christmas, but never had a chance to give her. In the refrigerator, the fish she had seasoned to cook for Riana's dinner when she returned from the flea market on December 16, was still there. "Riana loves food, and I was planning to fry the fish for her," she said, breaking down and crying.
