Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Hin­di Foun­da­tion of TT (HFTT) is ap­peal­ing for more mem­bers to car­ry the torch of teach­ing Hin­di in T&T.

The call came from HFTT pres­i­dent Chanka Seeter­ram dur­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s 37th an­nu­al awards and din­ner at the Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi In­sti­tute for Cul­tur­al Co­op­er­a­tion in Mt Hope on Mon­day.

Seeter­ram said it was im­por­tant that a new gen­er­a­tion comes to the fore­front so fu­ture gen­er­a­tions can look back with pride and say, “We have walked the walk and talked the talk of Hin­di.”

Seeter­ram said the route of cul­ture has been an equal­ly im­por­tant ve­hi­cle for the con­vey­ing of In­di­an cul­ture in T&T.

“It is not on­ly through the for­mal and in­for­mal class­room meth­ods and di­verse writ­ten for­mats we have em­ployed over the years, but equal­ly through the medi­ums of cul­ture via mu­sic, song and dance,” Seeter­ram said.

He said the work of the HFTT has not gone un­no­ticed by the Gov­ern­ment of T&T and has al­so been recog­nised by the gov­ern­ment of In­dia.

Thir­teen peo­ple were award­ed on the night, in­clud­ing posthu­mous awards to en­ter­tain­ers Anil Bheem, Jameer Ho­sein and Ram­nar­ine Mooni­lal.

Al­so get­ting life­time awards were HFTT mem­bers Patrick Ed­wards, Chanka Seeter­ram and Bob Gopie.

Awards al­so went to Hin­di teach­ers Jin­sey Sam­path, Jankie Baldeosingh and Jas­so­dra Singh; and en­ter­tain­ers Rafi Mo­hammed, Saraswati Ma­haraj, Lutch­me­di­al Go­piechan and Ra­jesh Seenath.