Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Leg­endary lo­cal In­di­an singer Bu­dram Ho­lass, 68, has died. Ho­lass was be­ing treat­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal for the past two weeks for breath­ing prob­lems but suc­cumbed to his ail­ments yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Ruk­m­i­nee Ho­lass-Beepath, 71, the old­er sis­ter of the singer, said he was suf­fer­ing with breath­ing and car­diac-re­lat­ed com­pli­ca­tions.

Ruk­m­i­nee, who re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal for Cul­ture this year, said her broth­er con­tributed im­mense­ly to the growth and de­vel­op­ment of lo­cal In­di­an cul­ture in the gen­res of In­di­an clas­si­cal singing, tra­di­tion­al chut­ney, Ra­mayan, wed­ding songs and Bi­ra­har singing.

Ruk­m­i­nee said, “Bu­dram was plan­ning his 69th birth­day cel­e­bra­tion on De­cem­ber 28. He had been in and out of the hos­pi­tal for the past few years. He was a di­a­bet­ic and lost his two legs but this nev­er kept him back from singing. Singing was his life. He helped to es­tab­lish the Bu­dram Ho­lass Cul­tur­al Cen­tre in Granville, where he was born, to teach the art­form.”

The sis­ter said Ho­lass lived in Chatam and re­ceived sev­er­al awards through­out his life­time. He was a bach­e­lor with no chil­dren.

Ho­lass record­ed his first chut­ney song at age 14.

His songs were re­gard­ed as up­beat but were all re­li­gious in na­ture.

Ho­lass per­formed in Suri­name, Guyana, Cana­da, USA, Flori­da, Mau­ri­tius and In­dia over his ca­reer.

She lament­ed the toll di­a­betes took on her broth­er’s life. “When he was in hos­pi­tal, he would call me at 1 am or around 2 am every morn­ing and tell me he can­not breathe. He told me he couldn’t sleep and I prayed for him every morn­ing to feel bet­ter to go back to sleep. He was suf­fer­ing a lot and di­a­betes had tak­en a toll on his life. He was go­ing blind, but he loved his singing and his cul­ture.”

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Hin­di Foun­da­tion of T&T Inc cul­tur­al af­fairs chair­man Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo said he had al­ways been a big sup­port­er of Ho­lass’ mu­sic.

Man­ga­roo said, “We mourn the loss of Boodram Ho­lass, a true cul­tur­al icon. His im­pact on our so­ci­ety was im­mense, and his con­tri­bu­tions will for­ev­er be re­mem­bered.

“Bu­dram Ho­lass’ tal­ent, pas­sion, and ded­i­ca­tion to his craft were tru­ly in­spir­ing. His lega­cy will con­tin­ue to shape and in­flu­ence our cul­tur­al land­scape for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers are with his fam­i­ly, friends, and fans dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. May his soul find eter­nal peace.”

Fu­ner­al arrange­ments will be an­nounced by rel­a­tives.