In this second and final part, Dr Sat Balkaransingh concludes his tribute to musician, teacher, researcher and bandleader Narsaloo Ramaya, who died last month.
Narsaloo Ramaya pursued the academic path simultaneously with his artistic career. From 1952-58 he obtained his GCE O and A Levels and teacher's diploma. In 1963, he enrolled at the UWI but due to illness was unable to continue. However, he read sociology and anthropology privately.
As a primary school teacher since 1958, Narsaloo taught music to his students. In 1972 he composed a song with Hindi lyrics for schoolchildren to sing at the tenth anniversary of Independence celebrations. Employed as a teacher in various schools run by the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) since 1958, he became vice-principal of the Aranguez Hindu School, in 1969, a position which he held till his retirement in 1974.
In that year he transferred his paedagogic impulses to the wider national community as a cultural research officer with the newly-created National Cultural Council (NCC-1971) of the Ministry of Education and Culture. He travelled to India in 1975, on the invitation of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to visit music academies and other institutions of culture.
Ramaya remained with the NCC until its dissolution in 1983. He presented programmes for the Government Broadcasting Unit, lectured to secondary schools and organised performances by students for the country's independence celebrations. While at the NCC in 1980, he founded and led Triveni Indian Orchestra.
Ramaya was also a prolific researcher and writer on local culture. Those who were fortunate to read his manuscripts have only high praise for his research efforts. He wrote in an unpretentious, simple style, conveying his thoughts with clarity and effectiveness.
He wrote on topics that included East Indian traditional music and folk traditions, Indian musical instruments in T&T, the development of Indian music, the cult of Kali worship in T&T, the festivals of Phagwa, Hosay, Shivaratri, Soparee Mai/La Divina Pastora, East Indian immigration and indentureship and Hindi films and songs. Most of his manuscripts are in the library of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus.
As an artiste, he performed with such pioneers in local Indian entertainment as Champa Devi (Fatima Rahim), Tarran Persad, Sayeed Mohammed, Henry "Tooloom" Dindial, Bahadoor, Bijou, Chook Cham (Ahmad Khan), Noor Jahan (Irene Montrichard, ne� Housein), Fakeer Mohammed, Ramcharan and Ralph Narine.
He was associated with some of the first patrons of the Indian arts in Trinidad: Babu Ramsingh, Paul Harris and Lionel Seukaran, and promoters Kamaludin Mohammed, Moen and Sham Mohammed, Pat Mathura, Amjad Farzan Ali, Nazim Muradali and Hans Hanoomansingh.
Practising multiculturalism
Long before the concept of multiculturalism had been espoused in T&T, Narsaloo was practising it effectively, despite the existing brand of urban, Afro-Saxon, Christian patriotism which was articulated and promoted locally.
He had no doubt that the Indo-Trinidadian society had been as patriotic as anyone else but demonstrated it in3 their own unique way, always conscious of their cultural values and art forms. They remained on the periphery of general, societal acceptance, always having to adjust to the projected values of the then ruling elites.
He took the brave and pioneering step of launching the Triveni Orchestra or "three flowing rivers" in 1980. He was eminently qualified to do so. He had surrounded himself with a library of diverse music; both western and eastern, Indian classical music, the music from the great masters of both genres. He held a special regard for the music of India and for Ustad Bismillah Khan and his Shehnai.
He had remained close to the local artistes of that period and had developed an eye for spotting talent. He was aware of the winds of change that were sweeping T&T and the western world. He had let the winds of other cultures blow through the windows of his house, yet like the Mahatma, he refused to allow any to blow him down. He remained firmly rooted to the Indian art forms, always looking for ways to improve them but making them relevant to the local environment.
Triveni Orchestra took its name from the term Triveni, a Sanskrit and Hindi word meaning three streams. It is generally used to refer to the convergence of the three rivers in Prayag, later renamed Allahabad (the abode of Allah), India; the Ganga, Jamuna and the underground stream, the Saraswati.
Ramaya's Triveni was structured both in policy and practice to produce and play the whole range of music that represented T&T: the Indo and the Afro Trinbagonian and the English genre of music–in short, the music of contemporary T&T and the Caribbean. In the Triveni orchestra he surrounded himself with a band of young dynamic musicians, including Virendra Persad and Richard Ramlakhansingh.
They developed and played a repertoire of what they considered to be Trinidadian music, crossing over all the parallel genres of music played in this country. The offering was more syncretic than multicultural.
They rapidly became the band in demand throughout the country and abroad. Today Triveni Orchestra is among a small group of orchestras playing crossover music that continue to attract the limelight in T&T and its diaspora in North America and Europe. Narsaloo had begun a trend that others followed. Currently similar party-music bands include Dil-e-Nadan, Mellobugs, Gayatones and Karma.
It was not only Narsaloo Ramaya who espoused and practised the concept of multiculturalism, but he was one of its early, pioneering practitioners of this policy both through his music and his other activities, including his shared vision as practised by the NCIC.
His achievements
Narsaloo Ramaya received several honours and awards. In 1970 he received a national award, the Humming Bird Medal (bronze), for his outstanding contribution to Indian culture. In 1972 the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha conferred on him a silver medal, for his cultural contribution to the community. In 1975 Narsaloo was again honoured by the Teachers' Association of the Maha Sabha. That same year he was awarded a fellowship by the Government of India to visit music academies and other cultural institutions in India.
In 1986 the NCIC conferred a gold medal on Narsaloo and in 1991 he was honoured by Nrityanjali Theatre, Institute for the Arts, in an elaborate ceremony at Queen's Hall with the Angwastram, the celebrated "Shawl of Honour," for his contribution to culture.
By that time he very rarely played his beloved violin in public. But he played at his Angwastram ceremony, in Queen's Hall, possibly for the last time at that premier auditorium. His erstwhile nimble fingers showed signs of slowing. It was the end of a long and illustrious stage career.Later, in 1996, Narsaloo would have a road named in his honour, the road running north-south in front of the Divali Nagar, in Chaguanas: the Narsaloo Ramaya Marg.
In 2006 and 2008 he was inducted into the 103 FM Radio Station and the NCIC Halls of Fame respectively.His history is now not only inextricably tied up with that of the municipality of Chaguanas, but to the wider community, a fitting tribute to a national icon.
Narsaloo the man
Narsaloo was a very dignified yet humble, warm, disciplined and meticulously tidy person in his personal bearing, attire, penmanship and dealings with the artistic fraternity and the public. This was his hallmark.
When Kamal "Charch" and I visited him at his house in Barataria in the midmorning of February 1, 2011, unannounced, (during my visit to Charch's home to talk about Narsaloo, Charch insisted that we visit him immediately), age had taken its toll on him. He was hardly able to either recognise or hear us. His sight and hearing had significantly deteriorated.
But lying quietly on his couch, he was still impeccably dressed. He sported a clean long-sleeved, white, ironed shirt, black pants and white socks. He came out to sit with us on a rocking chair in his gallery.As recognition dawned on him of the identity of his guests, he became more effusive, excitedly remembering his "good old days" with Moen, Sham and Kamal, the artistic fraternity, his contemporaries. He became emotional.
This iconic artist, humanitarian, husband to Betty, father of four, uncle, grandfather (Nana and Aja) and visionary was still the simple man, of Andhra Pradesh ancestry, who had fortunately found his roots 12,000 miles away, re-established ties with his relatives in the Telugu-speaking village in south India and was now "ah old man" full of emotions for T&T and his people here, especially the artistes.The tears flowed. They were joyous tears for people who still remembered him and paid him visits.
"You all making me cry," he said, wiping his eyes with a clean handkerchief brought by his daughter, Sita, while his wife Betty sat with us cuddling her baby grandson.He cried for the artistes and the artistic fraternity that he remembered. Our 88-year-old icon cried for joy, remembering the old pioneering days of Indian music in Trinidad. It was a happy occasion.
As we prepared to leave, the octogenarian Charch, in keeping with his Islamic background and practising tenets of the faith, stood up and faced Narsaloo, uttered a prayer in Urdu and blew (phukay) on Narsaloo three times. This is also in keeping with the Indian tradition of blessing and warding away evil. He promised Narsaloo to return to visit for as long as (his failing) health permitted.
As we departed, Narsaloo hobbled along with us to the front door of his home, still maintaining that typical old Indian tradition of according the highest respect to one's guests, and held on to the gate, standing upright, his Betty at his side, to bid us farewell.Narsaloo's health deteriorated further until June 20, when the physical body could no longer bear the burden of its suffering. He passed over to greener pastures.
The funeral services were performed according to Roman Catholic rites, a faith in which he had been baptised in 1943, followed by cremation. He departed as he had lived, a full and eventful earthly life, constantly and effortlessly crossing racial, artistic and religious barriers and always with an encouraging word to all who came into contact with him. It is fitting that we record and celebrate the pioneering work, the life and achievements of Narsaloo Ramaya, one of the great cultural icons of T&T.
Dr Sat Balkaransingh is a former senior public servant, a part-time lecturer at UWI and a consultant in policy, strategic and project planning and culture.He is a dancer/choreographer and artistic director of the Kathak Kala Sangam (Academy for the Arts). He studied in Trinidad, India, and UK.