Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

The Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tion can be used to bring in for­eign ex­change if the event is mar­ket­ed and pro­mot­ed in­ter­na­tion­al­ly along the lines of cul­tur­al tourism. This is the view of Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti-cul­tur­al­ism Nela Khan, who is the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Princes Town. At the of­fi­cial launch of Ram­leela 2011 at the Palmiste Park, San Fer­nan­do, last Sun­day, Khan said cul­tur­al tourism is ex­pand­ing world­wide and for­eign­ers were com­ing to en­joy the en­tire cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence. Be­cause Ram­leela por­tray­als de­pict the cre­ativ­i­ty and tal­ent of T&T, she said this could be used as a form of cul­tur­al tourism.

She not­ed that the Palmiste and En­vi­rons Dra­ma and Vi­su­al Arts So­ci­ety had been suc­cess­ful in at­tract­ing mas­sive crowds to the event in the lead-up to Di­vali. "While Ram­leela is es­sen­tial­ly re­li­gious by na­ture, there are strong com­po­nents of cul­ture which can be har­nessed to bring for­eign ex­change to T&T," Khan said. "The char­ac­ters of Ram­leela are colour­ful, with each hav­ing their own dis­tinct per­son­al­i­ty and cos­tum­ing which clear­ly iden­ti­fies them. "Why can we not make sim­ple dolls por­tray­ing these char­ac­ters and make them avail­able in the mar­kets? "We could de­sign cos­tumes like what we do for Car­ni­val and dec­o­rate them so that a vis­i­tor can pur­chase these cos­tumes and dolls and take with them abroad as a re­minder of their unique cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence of Ram­leela."

She said the sug­ges­tions could be suc­cess­ful­ly im­ple­ment­ed with­out com­pro­mis­ing the in­tegri­ty of the fes­ti­val, while at the same time help­ing to bring earn­ings to the or­gan­i­sa­tion and the coun­try. "This in­creased in­come can al­so as­sist in ex­pand­ing the scope of the fes­ti­val and pro­vide op­por­tu­ni­ties for many in­di­vid­u­als as­so­ci­at­ed with the event...We just need to be cre­ative," Khan said. She said tourists were en­thralled by T&T's cul­ture and such tan­gi­ble sou­venirs would add to the Tri­ni ex­pe­ri­ence. She not­ed that archives of Ram­leela events over the years could be trans­ferred to DVD's and CD's, which could then be sold. Pres­i­dent of Pan­davas, Chi­man­dath Ma­haraj, said the Ram­leela event would take place from Sep­tem­ber 30 to Oc­to­ber 10. He added that one of the biggest chal­lenges fac­ing the event was ed­u­cat­ing the wider pub­lic about Ram­leela.