Shas­tri Boodan

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal was yes­ter­day re­mem­bered as a pa­tri­ot, ex­em­plar and de­vot­ed fam­i­ly man, dur­ing a heart­felt trib­ute by fel­low par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and mem­bers of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Teemal died on Sun­day fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of ill­ness. He was cre­mat­ed fol­low­ing a fu­ner­al ser­vice at the NCIC Di­vali Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas.

Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark and Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne led trib­utes to Teemal, prais­ing his qui­et dig­ni­ty, un­wa­ver­ing in­tegri­ty, and deep com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice, cul­ture, and fam­i­ly.

Mark de­scribed Teemal as “a man of deep in­tegri­ty, qui­et con­vic­tion, and an un­wa­ver­ing sense of du­ty,” not­ing that he had served along­side him in the Up­per House af­ter Teemal’s ap­point­ment as an In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor in 2018 by for­mer Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes.

In ad­di­tion to his par­lia­men­tary con­tri­bu­tions, Mark high­light­ed Teemal’s long­stand­ing work in the cul­tur­al and re­li­gious spheres. He served with the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) and led the Hin­du Swayam­se­vak Sangh from 1988.

“His work en­riched the lives of thou­sands. He led not with fan­fare but with qui­et ded­i­ca­tion and spir­i­tu­al strength, em­body­ing the dharmic prin­ci­ples he held so dear,” Mark said.

He al­so spoke mov­ing­ly of Teemal’s de­vo­tion to fam­i­ly: “There was a light­ness in his voice, a soft­ness in his eyes when he spoke about them. It was clear that be­neath the pub­lic ser­vice and pro­fes­sion­al com­mit­ments was a man root­ed deeply in love and lega­cy. For him, fam­i­ly was not on­ly his foun­da­tion, it was his great­est ful­fil­ment.”

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Browne de­scribed Teemal as a men­tor, big broth­er, gu­ru, and a source of calm in the Sen­ate.

“I’ve lost count of the num­ber of times things got heat­ed in the cham­ber, and then Sen­a­tor Teemal would rise. You just knew what he would say and how he would say it would ed­i­fy, up­lift, and in­spire. He cooled the tem­per­a­ture to a more de­cent and civilised cli­mate,” Browne said.

He re­called Teemal’s qui­et com­po­sure even when he was “dis­re­spect­ed and den­i­grat­ed by those un­wor­thy to touch the buck­le of his san­dals.”

“Al­ways cool, al­ways calm, al­ways serene. I don’t know how he did it,” Browne said.

“He helped main­tain the dig­ni­ty of the Par­lia­ment while up­lift­ing its stan­dards.”

Browne added that Teemal re­mains a ref­er­ence point in an era “where no­bil­i­ty and pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­tise seem to re­ceive the low­est weight in mak­ing ap­point­ments and choos­ing so­ci­ety’s he­roes.”

Teemal’s daugh­ters, Kaa­jal and Priya, de­liv­ered a touch­ing eu­lo­gy, de­scrib­ing their fa­ther as a com­pas­sion­ate man who loved an­i­mals and en­cour­aged read­ing from an ear­ly age.

“He fed stray an­i­mals in our old neigh­bour­hood, and af­ter we moved, he went back just to feed them,” they shared. “He en­cour­aged a love for read­ing in our home by giv­ing my sis­ter and me books.”

Trib­utes were al­so de­liv­ered by Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, first vice pres­i­dent of the NCIC.

The fu­ner­al ser­vice was at­tend­ed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment from both the Up­per and Low­er Hous­es, and mem­bers of the Hin­du and na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ties.