For years, gourmet pas­try chef Nazeem Baksh be­lieved his fu­ture was set—root­ed firm­ly in oil and gas as a plant op­er­a­tor at Petrotrin. But what he didn’t re­alise was that the sci­ence that would tru­ly shape his life wasn’t buried deep in the re­fin­ery. It was wait­ing qui­et­ly in the warmth of a kitchen.

The Aripo Dat­ta Gan­ga lies along the Aripo Road. It was es­tab­lished by His Ho­li­ness Sri Swa­mi Gana­p­a­thy Sachchi­danan­da, Spir­i­tu­al Leader of the Dat­ta­treya Yo­ga Cen­tre based in Mysore, In­dia, who jour­neyed west in search of the holy riv­er Sararipu Na­di, ref­er­enced in the an­cient Hin­du scrip­ture, the Brah­manan­da Pu­rana.

Trinida­di­an artist Si­mone Jacelon is giv­ing au­di­ences a new way to ex­pe­ri­ence her ac­claimed ex­hi­bi­tion, The Flow of Her—this time in an in­ti­mate, sen­so­ry-rich set­ting at Ukiyo Restau­rant. Af­ter cap­ti­vat­ing view­ers at The BRIX, Au­to­graph Col­lec­tion, the artist now of­fers a week-long ex­ten­sion that in­vites guests to en­counter her lat­est works up close, sur­round­ed by the warmth, fra­grance, and am­bi­ence of a cu­rat­ed din­ing space.

Dr Krys­tal-Jane Ve­rasam­my grew up in San­ta Cruz, where strong com­mu­ni­ty ties shaped her ear­ly sense of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and care. She at­tend­ed Sa­cred Heart Girls’ RC and lat­er Holy Name Con­vent in Port-of-Spain. Even in sec­ondary school, from as ear­ly as Form Six, she felt com­pelled to be­come a psy­chol­o­gist. While class­mates pur­sued lead­er­ship roles such as cap­tain and pre­fect, she trained as a peer coun­sel­lor through an NGO part­ner­ship with her school.

“Why can’t life be sweet like the scent of this night?” ex­claimed a Ger­man first-time tourist to Trinidad while en­joy­ing the in­au­gur­al Steel­pan and Pow­der Pa­rade (SPP) in Tu­na­puna on No­vem­ber 15.

Three-time Chut­ney So­ca Monarch GI (Im­ran Be­har­ry) has of­fi­cial­ly joined T&T’s most en­er­getic live so­ca out­fit, The A Team Band, ahead of Car­ni­val 2026. The Bun­ga­low Restau­rant and Lounge in St Clair came alive last week as the band un­veiled its new front­line singers and de­liv­ered a dy­nam­ic, genre-blend­ing per­for­mance for pro­mot­ers, spon­sors and spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests.

Mindy Romero Mollineau turns cakes, brown­ies, and cook­ies in­to a fes­tive, in­ter­ac­tive ex­pe­ri­ence with her mo­bile dessert cart—and dreams of a café of her own.

Mas lovers, get ready—Kalicha­ran Mas is set to mes­merise with its daz­zling 2026 Car­ni­val pre­sen­ta­tion, Be­daz­zled.

Au­thor and sto­ry­teller Mary Cuffy has long been known for cham­pi­oning lit­er­a­cy in ear­ly child­hood. She is the cre­ator of the beloved La­dy­bug book se­ries, which in­cludes Lo­la and the Danc­ing La­dy­bugs, Lo­la and the Mag­ic Sticks, and Lo­la and the Fas­ci­nat­ing Co­coa Bean, as well as the recipe book Bake the Co­coa Cook­ie with Lo­la. In ad­di­tion to her writ­ing, Cuffy has lec­tured in the Cer­tifi­cate and Bach­e­lor of Ed­u­ca­tion in Ear­ly Child­hood De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Stud­ies pro­grammes at the UWI Open Cam­pus, and she con­tin­ues to en­gage young read­ers through her week­ly chil­dren’s col­umn in the Guardian.

For the last Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion (2024-2025), High­landers Youth Steel Or­ches­tra (High­landers) nar­row­ly missed reach­ing the fi­nals for the third time in over 50 years—falling short by just one point. But with this year’s tune, David Rud­der’s Tri­ni 2 de Bone, the band is pulling out all the stops, aim­ing for a stronger per­for­mance in the 2025-2026 Panora­ma sea­son. Re­hearsals be­gan in Au­gust un­der arranger Joeth Roberts and drill mas­ters Adilize Bap­tiste, as­sist­ed by An­der­son Bap­tiste.

In the fast-paced world of the Unit­ed Na­tions Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence, it may seem un­think­able—es­pe­cial­ly for ne­go­tia­tors—to pause for a mind­ful­ness ex­er­cise. “What’s that do­ing there in the first place?” some might ask.