Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo has praised the na­tion’s teach­ers and com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers for their ded­i­ca­tion and self­less ser­vice in the ar­eas of ed­u­ca­tion and so­cial up­lift­ment.

De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture’s (NCIC) Di­vali Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas on Wednes­day, Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo re­flect­ed on this year’s theme, Lo­ka San­gra­ha—The Wel­fare of the World. She said the con­cept could serve as a guid­ing light for T&T’s progress.

“I be­lieve that Lo­ka San­gra­ha can be seen in the ser­vice of the na­tion’s teach­ers, who, with lim­it­ed re­sources and of­ten their own funds, com­mit them­selves to nur­tur­ing young minds and shap­ing fu­tures,” she said.

“They see each stu­dent not just as a pupil but as a po­ten­tial light in the world.”

The Pres­i­dent not­ed that dur­ing her vis­its to schools across the coun­try, she and her hus­band had wit­nessed first-hand the com­pas­sion and care teach­ers show their stu­dents, of­ten pro­vid­ing help dis­creet­ly so as not to cause em­bar­rass­ment.

“Lo­ka San­gra­ha can al­so be seen in the lives of com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers who give their time and en­er­gy self­less­ly—reach­ing out to the vul­ner­a­ble, lift­ing up the mar­gin­alised, and pro­tect­ing our en­vi­ron­ment,” she said. “They are the in­spi­ra­tional cit­i­zens who un­der­stand that na­tion-build­ing rests in the hands of each one of us.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing that T&T faces nu­mer­ous chal­lenges, Kan­ga­loo said the na­tion has the ad­van­tage of draw­ing wis­dom from time­less teach­ings, such as those found in Hin­du phi­los­o­phy.

“These lessons re­mind us how to live with in­tegri­ty, com­pas­sion and a sense of du­ty to one an­oth­er,” she said.

“If we can recom­mit our­selves to these val­ues—show­ing kind­ness in the home, fair­ness in the work­place, in­tegri­ty in our deal­ings and self­less con­tri­bu­tions in pub­lic life—then we will move clos­er to re­al­is­ing the ide­al of Lo­ka San­gra­ha.”

The Pres­i­dent al­so re­flect­ed on glob­al and lo­cal is­sues such as con­flict, en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, and the ero­sion of moral val­ues, not­ing that T&T is not im­mune to these pres­sures.

“Sad­ly, we live in a so­ci­ety where many seem will­ing to aban­don the val­ues we were taught as chil­dren in ex­change for fleet­ing fame or for­tune,” she said.

“Against this back­drop, Lo­ka San­gra­ha speaks pow­er­ful­ly to us—it re­minds us that while we may pur­sue per­son­al goals, we al­so have a du­ty to sus­tain our com­mu­ni­ties and hu­man­i­ty as a whole.”

Kan­ga­loo em­pha­sised that the prin­ci­ple of Lo­ka San­gra­ha ap­plies to every­one, not on­ly lead­ers.

“Lead­ers may set di­rec­tion, but it is we who cre­ate the cul­ture,” she said.

She al­so paid trib­ute to the late Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, for­mer NCIC pres­i­dent, for his im­mense con­tri­bu­tion to cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment, and com­mend­ed the NCIC for its con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to pre­serv­ing and pro­mot­ing the na­tion’s cul­tur­al her­itage.