Rashan­da Mc Ken­na

It was a pho­to­jour­nal­ist's dream to see par­ents, chil­dren and some pop­u­lar po­lit­i­cal fig­ures, bathed in abeer and coloured pow­der (gu­lal) for Phag­wa cel­e­bra­tions yes­ter­day, at the Tu­na­puna Hin­du School. The cel­e­bra­to­ry mood was rem­i­nis­cent of Car­ni­val sea­son, with var­i­ous shades of colours, and chil­dren full of joy en­grossed in the cul­ture of their East In­di­an an­ces­tors.

No one could es­cape the dye-filled wa­ter guns and 'squeezy' bot­tles, as the cloth­ing of par­tic­i­pants looked like ex­pres­sion­ist art pieces. There was colour every­where as chil­dren sprayed ran­dom­ly at the faces and cloth­ing of those who dared to be clean. Tas­sa drums, chow­taal singing and Hin­di mu­sic filled the at­mos­phere as Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ar­rived but she could not es­cape the colour-hap­py young­sters, as she was swamped by ea­ger chil­dren wait­ing to cov­er her with abeer.

The fes­tiv­i­ties were or­gan­ised by the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sa­ba, and oth­er at­ten­dees in­clud­ed the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Tim Gopeesingh, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Win­ston Pe­ters, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Em­manuel George, Min­is­ter of Trans­port De­vant Ma­haraj, and hon­oree Is­rael Khan, Se­nior Coun­sel, who al­so at­tend­ed Tu­na­puna Hin­du School in his youth.

How­ev­er, those dis­tin­guished guests were hard­ly recog­nis­able, as they min­gled with the chil­dren, hold­ing bot­tles with mix­tures, look­ing for vic­tims to spray. The fes­ti­val of spring, as the Hin­dus call Holi or Phag­wa, was giv­en new mean­ing as the Prime Min­is­ter gave her fea­ture ad­dress. Speak­ing to scores of colour-coat­ed spec­ta­tors, she said Phag­wa sig­ni­fies new mean­ing and new be­gin­nings for a brighter fu­ture.

"Cel­e­brat­ing events like Phag­wa is a kind of re­new­al for the new gen­er­a­tion. It helps us to place im­por­tance on where we come from." Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed that In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day and its fo­cus on rur­al women every­where, is rep­re­sen­ta­tive of what Holi cel­e­brates.

"Phag­wa is a sea­son of hope and a time to re­new our com­mit­ment to se­cur­ing our fu­ture be­cause the chil­dren here are our hope and our fu­ture," preached Per­sad-Bisses­sar. The Prime Min­is­ter al­so stressed re­li­gion and cul­ture will bring chil­dren clos­er to God, in this mul­ti re­li­gious, mul­ti cul­tur­al so­ci­ety, stat­ing that "it re­minds us to keep our feet on the ground and re­mem­ber where we came from and who we are".