Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor-News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

On Au­gust 20, Vic­to­ria Am­ri­ta Ma­haraj will per­form at the Kali Ya­tra Fes­ti­val 2025. It will be an­oth­er ma­jor step in her mu­si­cal jour­ney, one that has been rich in cul­tur­al his­to­ry and en­dur­ing lega­cy. The 25 year old is quick­ly ris­ing as one of the most promi­nent In­do-Trinida­di­an mu­si­cians in the coun­try. From vo­cals to the vi­o­lin, Ma­haraj has been per­form­ing at mi­nor and ma­jor events across the na­tion.

In a re­cent con­ver­sa­tion with WE mag­a­zine, Ma­haraj spoke about her rise in the per­form­ing arts, the in­spi­ra­tion in keep­ing Hin­di tra­di­tions and his­to­ry alive, while al­so hail­ing her moth­er as a “pil­lar be­hind every de­ci­sion, every per­for­mance, and every suc­cess”.

She al­so cred­it­ed Mr Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo for hav­ing a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on her growth as a per­former. She re­mains in­spired by a quote he com­mon­ly shares, “Virtue lies in the strug­gle, not in the prize.”

Q: Tell us about your jour­ney and how you got in­to In­do-cul­tur­al mu­sic?

A: I cur­rent­ly work as a planogram an­a­lyst at Su­per­Pharm, hav­ing grad­u­at­ed in 2024 from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies with a BSc in Fi­nan­cial Man­age­ment, with First Class Ho­n­ours. I was award­ed the UWI Open Schol­ar­ship in 2020. My aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney be­gan at Av­o­cat Vedic School, where I placed third na­tion­al­ly in the SEA ex­ams, and I con­tin­ued to Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School. It was there that I de­vel­oped not on­ly my aca­d­e­m­ic dis­ci­pline but al­so my deep love for cul­ture, lan­guage and mu­sic. I al­so de­vel­oped a love for hik­ing through the Pres­i­dent’s Award Scheme pro­gramme, where I earned the bronze and sil­ver awards.

Q: Were you al­ways in­to mu­sic?

A: Mu­sic en­tered my life at the age of sev­en. My moth­er, Choomatie Ma­haraj, recog­nised ear­ly that my broth­er and I need­ed some­thing to de­vel­op bal­ance in life, and ex­tracur­ric­u­lars were the way to­wards that. I start­ed learn­ing the key­board and vi­o­lin from Mr Shiv­anand Ma­haraj at the Shiv Sangeet School of Mu­sic. He en­cour­aged me to sing at venues like NA­PA and Na­pari­ma Bowl at the school’s con­certs. Lat­er on, I learnt from tal­ent­ed pro­fes­sion­als like Mr Ra­jan Seemu­n­gal and Mr Khem­raj Sug­rim­s­ingh. Even­tu­al­ly, I grav­i­tat­ed to­wards vo­cals and the har­mo­ni­um. In my jour­ney as a har­mo­ni­um play­er, my de­vel­op­ment and play­ing style were sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­pact­ed by Pt Narain­dra Ma­haraj.

Over the years, I’ve de­vel­oped a strong con­nec­tion to mu­sic in its purest and most au­then­tic form. I was in­tro­duced to the lo­cal clas­si­cal art form by the spir­i­tu­al lead­ers of the Dood­nath Mandir, and since then, this too has be­come a big part of my life. My mu­sic is root­ed in au­then­tic­i­ty, and I’ve al­so start­ed com­pos­ing orig­i­nal lo­cal clas­si­cal pieces that I hope to soon share.

Along­side mu­sic, I’ve been prac­tis­ing the art of mehn­di for over 15 years. What be­gan as a small cre­ative out­let be­came a deeply cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al form of ex­pres­sion. I’ve been a reg­u­lar mehn­di artist at Di­vali Na­gar for the past four years.

Q: What dri­ves you in tra­di­tion­al mu­sic?

A: My pas­sion lies in keep­ing tra­di­tion­al mu­sic alive, es­pe­cial­ly forms that are slow­ly be­ing lost to time. I per­form se­mi-clas­si­cal, de­vo­tion­al, and tra­di­tion­al In­di­an songs at cul­tur­al events and cer­e­monies, pro­mot­ing all live mu­sic. My song se­lec­tions seek to evoke a sense of his­to­ry and iden­ti­ty, and I’ve al­ways felt that younger gen­er­a­tions de­serve the chance to ex­pe­ri­ence that. I choose not to mod­ernise or remix my style too heav­i­ly be­cause I want the pu­ri­ty of the form to speak for it­self.

Com­pos­ing lo­cal clas­si­cal pieces has be­come a mean­ing­ful part of my jour­ney. It’s my en­deav­our to con­tribute some­thing orig­i­nal to a time­less tra­di­tion. Every note and lyric is cre­at­ed with in­ten­tion—to ho­n­our the past and in­spire the present.

Q: How do you bal­ance work and mu­sic?

A: Bal­anc­ing school, work, and cul­tur­al com­mit­ments hasn’t al­ways been easy. But struc­ture, time man­age­ment and love for what I do have made all the dif­fer­ence, and I am ever grate­ful to those around me for help­ing to keep me mo­ti­vat­ed. Every day, I learn new ways to find bal­ance and get it all done. Mu­sic has been my an­chor dur­ing stress­ful times. Af­ter a long day of work or study, I can sit with my har­mo­ni­um and feel com­plete­ly at peace. I’ve been learn­ing to plan ahead, pri­ori­tise and give each part of my life the time and en­er­gy it needs. It’s not about do­ing every­thing at once; it’s about do­ing what mat­ters, when it mat­ters, to the best of your abil­i­ty.

Q: What were some of the ac­co­lades that mean the most to you?

A: Through­out my jour­ney, I’ve been for­tu­nate to re­ceive recog­ni­tion that mo­ti­vates me to keep go­ing. I won Mas­tana Ba­har in 2019 and lat­er the NCIC Di­vali Na­gar Youth Champ com­pe­ti­tion and MG­CO Youth Tal­ent Com­pe­ti­tion in 2022. One of my biggest mu­si­cal achieve­ments was when I al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in and won Sangeet Pradar­shan in 2023. This was a plat­form that em­pow­ered me and pushed me to grow as a vo­cal­ist. My team and I were al­so blessed with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to fea­ture on the main stage at NCIC’s Di­vali Na­gar last year. A mem­o­rable high­light for me was be­ing one of six fe­male vo­cal­ists who record­ed the Hanu­man Chal­isa with Fed­er­a­tion Records in 2020. That year, the project won 103.1FM’s Bha­jan of the Year, and it re­mind­ed me that col­lab­o­ra­tion among women in the arts can be in­cred­i­bly pow­er­ful.

Q: What does cul­ture mean to you?

A: Cul­ture, for me, is em­pow­er­ment. As a woman, it has giv­en me a sense of pur­pose, iden­ti­ty, and pride. I grew up deeply in­volved in tem­ple life and was al­ways ac­tive in cul­tur­al lead­er­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly as part of the In­di­an Cul­tur­al Club at NGHS, where I served as ju­nior pres­i­dent, PRO, and pres­i­dent. Be­ing im­mersed in these spaces taught me the val­ue of ser­vice, dis­ci­pline, and car­ry­ing tra­di­tions for­ward not just for my­self but for younger gen­er­a­tions. Be­ing a woman in cul­ture al­so means de­fy­ing stereo­types. You can be spir­i­tu­al, artis­tic, aca­d­e­m­ic and ca­reer-fo­cused all at once. You can ho­n­our your roots while paving new roads. And you can lead, even in spaces that have tra­di­tion­al­ly been male-dom­i­nat­ed.

Q: Who are some of the peo­ple who have mo­ti­vat­ed you?

A: Women who have deeply in­spired my mu­si­cal jour­ney are Kaushi­ki Chakraborty and Prat­i­b­ha Singh Baghel. Lo­cal­ly, I am def­i­nite­ly in­spired by Nir­mala Ses­narayan and Satru­pa Ses­narayan, who have al­so left their mark as fe­male artistes in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Their abil­i­ty to re­main root­ed in pure mu­sic while per­form­ing with ex­pres­sion, pow­er, and grace has shown me what’s pos­si­ble. Their artistry re­minds me that stay­ing true to your voice—your re­al, un­fil­tered voice—is what sets you apart.

Q: What ad­vice would you give to women in mu­sic and the arts?

A: My ad­vice to young women is to stay true to your style. If you love tra­di­tion­al forms, hold on to that. You don’t need to fol­low trends to be rel­e­vant. Al­so, ac­cept your jour­ney, learn from your mis­takes, and car­ry on. You are your biggest mo­ti­va­tion. Keep push­ing, even when it feels hard. Your past mis­takes don’t de­fine you—they teach you. Fi­nal­ly, dis­ci­pline and self-aware­ness are just as im­por­tant as tal­ent. Know your goals, work to­wards them, and don’t wait for val­i­da­tion to be­gin.

Q: Are you cur­rent­ly work­ing on any new mu­sic?

A: I’ve been per­form­ing with my team at wed­dings, cul­tur­al events, mehfil nights, and so much more. What start­ed as a small, close-knit group that we fond­ly re­fer to as “The Trio + Keev” has grown in­to a ver­sion of the team that de­liv­ers full band-style per­for­mances based on the event. Our fo­cus is on cre­at­ing a space where au­then­tic In­di­an mu­sic can be shared in its orig­i­nal form—live, raw, and heart­felt. I’m al­so work­ing on a few record­ings, in­clud­ing some of my orig­i­nal lo­cal clas­si­cal com­po­si­tions and tra­di­tion­al songs, all aimed at con­tribut­ing to the preser­va­tion and cel­e­bra­tion of our cul­ture. My goal is to use these ex­pe­ri­ences to con­tin­ue learn­ing and ad­vanc­ing in every as­pect of my life and ul­ti­mate­ly make a pos­i­tive im­pact on up­com­ing gen­er­a­tions.