Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

New­ly-crowned Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Queen of the Bands, Rose­marie Ku­ru-Jages­sar, burst in­to tears and hid from the me­dia lime­light on Sun­day, when she found out that she had won the na­tion­al ti­tle at Queen's Park Sa­van­nah. For Ku­ru-Jages­sar, it was a dream come true, as she had worked for 28 years, try­ing to cop the cov­et­ed ti­tle.

The pe­tite mas queen, of Sut­ton Street in San Fer­nan­do, said when vic­to­ry came she was over­whelmed. "I cried a lot. At first, I couldn't stop cry­ing. I couldn't say any­thing to any­body, be­cause this is the first time that I ever was crowned na­tion­al queen." She said her vic­to­ry bore cre­dence to the skill of her hus­band, Li­onel Jages­sar, who de­signed and built the cos­tume at a cost of $30,000. Ac­tu­al de­sign of the cos­tume, named Wa­ka-Nisha–the Sa­cred Wa­ter Bear­er, from the band D Sioux Na­tion, start­ed on Ash Wednes­day, 2009.

The ac­tu­al mantling of the cos­tume took one week. De­spite her out­stand­ing vic­to­ry, Ku­ru-Jages­sar did not spend her day cel­e­brat­ing the vic­to­ry. In­stead, she was seen work­ing in her mas camp, mak­ing last-minute prepa­ra­tions for the Pa­rade of the Bands. Hold­ing up her crown and show­ing off her San Fer­nan­do tro­phy, Ku­ru-Jages­sar said Car­ni­val in 2010 had grown spec­tac­u­lar­ly in the South­land. She said when she en­tered the com­pe­ti­tion, she had a gut feel­ing that she would win.

But when it was of­fi­cial­ly an­nounced, Ku­ru-Jages­sar said she could bare­ly be­lieve the news. Smil­ing broad­ly, she added: "I know that I did some­thing dif­fer­ent. The cos­tume was telling a sto­ry, and it was un­like the usu­al fan­cy In­di­an de­sign. It fea­tured the wa­ter bear­er and I knew that this time I would fi­nal­ly win." Asked what she planned to do to cel­e­brate, Ku­ru-Jages­sar replied: "I have not made any plans. Right now, I feel as I am still in a dream."

The reign­ing queen al­so com­mend­ed oth­er south mas­quer­aders as well as south­ern­er Bri­an Lon­don, who placed sec­ond in the Di­manche Gras ca­lyp­so con­test. "We had oth­er suc­cess­ful can­di­dates like Glo­ria Dalls­ingh and Joan Mo­hammed, who per­formed well. We have to be proud of what South has done for Car­ni­val 2010."