Thou­sands of fans, fam­i­ly mem­bers and well-wish­ers bade farewell to lo­cal In­di­an singer Anil Bheem on Thurs­day. Mourn­ers start­ed gath­er­ing at the NCIC Na­gar site, Ch­agua­nas from as ear­ly as 8 am to lis­ten to trib­utes, songs and speech­es in ho­n­our of the life of the de­part­ed singer. 

George Singh, the CEO Southex Events Man­age­ment, was among 10 speak­ers who paid trib­ute to Bheem. 

Singh said the 2023 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch fi­nals will be ded­i­cat­ed to Bheem’s mem­o­ry and the late singer would be ho­n­oured at the open­ing of the show. 

Singh said T&T has lost a cul­tur­al icon that could nev­er be re­placed. He said “How un­cer­tain life can be. I would nev­er have imag­ined one week ago that I would be stand­ing here speak­ing at Anil Bheem’s fu­ner­al. On Sun­day morn­ing, the day af­ter Anil died, I read an ar­ti­cle that de­scribed Anil Bheem as a top Chut­ney So­ca artiste. He was so much more than that. While he dab­bled from time to time in the Chut­ney So­ca genre of mu­sic his forte was his mu­si­cal ren­di­tions of lo­cal Bol­ly­wood cov­ers and Bha­jans. These are the songs that res­onate with us. Anil Bheem was at the height of his ca­reer. He was hav­ing the biggest year of his life. He was trav­el­ling every week­end and was booked for months for events in Trinidad and around the world. He was burn­ing the can­dle at both ends and why not? Here was a young guy 48 years old at the pin­na­cle of his mu­si­cal ca­reer beat­ing it while it was hot. Makes you won­der right, some­times the big man has oth­er plans.” 

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Bheem gave so much of him­self, his love and his tal­ent. “He gave us com­fort in our most dif­fi­cult times and re­joiced with us dur­ing the hap­pi­est and joy­ous mile­stones through his mu­sic,” she said. Per­sad-Bisses­sar added the “out­pour­ing of love” seen in the past few days fol­low­ing Bheem’s death was an in­di­ca­tion of the pro­found im­pact he had on T&T’s cul­ture, the lo­cal mu­sic in­dus­try and on peo­ple’s lives.  She said “Anil was an icon of mu­sic who brought joy and hap­pi­ness to so many of us through his soul­ful voice and mu­si­cal tal­ent.  Once you heard his voice you felt lighter on your feet and more cheer­ful in spir­it. He had a rare qual­i­ty; in that he had an abil­i­ty to make you hap­py.” 

His daugh­ters Nee­lam and Pri­tiv Bheem al­so ho­n­oured their fa­ther.  Nee­lam said her fa­ther had a gold­en heart who made their Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tions mag­i­cal. “Grow­ing up un­der his care, there was noth­ing that I longed for, there was no strug­gle, there was no hard­ship. He made the world seem like a mag­i­cal place.” Nee­lam said her fa­ther treat­ed her “tough” and her sis­ter Pri­tivi was treat­ed as “the ba­by” among his two chil­dren. Nee­lam said her fa­ther loved his chil­dren and grand­chil­dren, “A fam­i­ly gath­er­ing to him wasn’t about spend­ing time with the adults, it was about the chil­dren. He would be on the floor with them while play­ing, cud­dles and kiss­es to wed­gies and jump kick­ing the boys. He was the most loved nan­na, the most loved cousin, the most loved fa­ther, the most loved hus­band.” 

Nee­lam said Bheem loved mu­sic and lived for his pas­sion. “I live my life to make you proud,”  Pri­tivi said her fa­ther was her hero, her pil­lar, strength and life. 

De­liv­er­ing the eu­lo­gy, his wife  Shaz­i­na Cheryl Bheem de­scribed him as the per­fect son, hus­band and fa­ther. “Ra­dio, mu­sic and fam­i­ly were his life”. She said Bheem was kind and ac­com­mo­dat­ing to new artistes and was the epit­o­my of hu­mil­i­ty and a cat­a­lyst for change. She added, “The mu­sic fra­ter­ni­ty has suf­fered a ma­jor lost that no shoe can fill. He was a prodi­gy, a true son of the soil… My love, you have for­ev­er changed the cul­tur­al land­scape of T&T and left your in­deli­ble mark on this earth.” 

The fu­ner­al was at­tend­ed by nu­mer­ous politi­cians from the gov­ern­ment and op­po­si­tion.  There were a num­ber of pro­mot­ers in­clud­ing Randy Glas­glow and Rafi Mo­hammed. Among the singers present were Ravi B, Nisha B, Rooplal G,Rakesh Yankaran, Dubraj Per­sad. Trib­ute was al­so paid from his co-work­ers at 103.1 FM and in­di­vid­u­als in­clud­ing Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo of the NCIC, Amir Ram­jat­tan of the BM­RZ band, Big Rich, Saleem Be­har­ry.Rafi Mo­hammed, Asha­ki Scott, Ja­son Cor­bie of 103.1 FM. The body was cre­mat­ed on the banks of the Ca­roni Riv­er.