Yvonne Ba­boolal

More than a cen­tu­ry af­ter Jankie Per­sad Shar­ma, born in 1894, crossed the Kala Pani on the Sut­lej to come to T&T to work as an in­den­tured im­mi­grant, his great-grand­son Ra­jiv Ramkissoon still holds him in awe and rev­er­ence.Shar­ma be­came the sec­ond Dhar­ma­charya (high­est Hin­du spir­i­tu­al leader) in T&T and be­gan a fam­i­ly tra­di­tion of pun­dits, but Ramkissoon chose a dif­fer­ent ca­reer path, in in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy.He went to pun­dit school for one day, he said.

He is a 28 year old who lives on the East-West Cor­ri­dor, and he at­tend­ed South East Port-of-Spain Sec­ondary school, in an area known for gang ri­val­ry, Nel­son Street.But Ramkissoon has, how­ev­er, re­tained es­sen­tial as­pects of his In­di­an her­itage, so jeal­ous­ly pre­served by his great-grand­fa­ther.He learnt Hin­di and can speak the lan­guage al­most flu­ent­ly, sings bha­jans and is a strict veg­e­tar­i­an.

An ac­counts ex­ec­u­tive with Guardian Me­dia Ltd, on the oc­ca­sion of In­di­an Ar­rival Day, he pulled out records of his great-grand­fa­ther and proud­ly told his sto­ry and the lega­cy he left his de­scen­dants.

Born in Ut­tar Pradesh120 years ago

One hun­dred and twen­ty years ago, Shar­ma was born in a small Vil­lage in Ut­tar Pradesh, In­dia.At the age of 18, he was on the Sut­lej ship head­ing to T&T to work as an in­den­tured im­mi­grant.Shar­ma was as­signed by the colo­nial gov­ern­ment to a sug­ar es­tate in Trinidad, where he worked for five years.While he worked as an in­den­tured im­mi­grant and lived in the bar­racks, his spir­i­tu­al ar­dor was undi­min­ished.

While he toiled in the sug­ar cane fields, Shar­ma served his com­mu­ni­ty as a Hin­du priest.Ac­cord­ing to records, he "was high­ly ed­u­cat­ed as a pan­dit in In­dia and brought with him the prin­ci­pal scrip­tur­al texts."He was award­ed the ti­tle of Swa­mi and called Swami­ji, the high­est spir­i­tu­al at­tain­ment.Af­ter he fin­ished his five-year term of in­den­ture­ship, Shar­ma set­tled in Debe in south Trinidad.It was in this rur­al re­gion set­tled large­ly by In­do-Trinida­di­ans that he found his bride, Gan­ga­daye and be­gan his fam­i­ly.

He fa­thered five chil­dren, in­clud­ing De­ok­ien­anan Shar­ma, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture.Ramkissoon's moth­er, Rad­hi­ca, was the daugh­ter of one of Shar­ma's chil­dren.

Thirst for spir­i­tu­al­i­ty

Fam­i­ly com­mit­ments did not lessen Shar­ma's thirst for spir­i­tu­al­i­ty.An ar­dent Hin­du, he built sev­er­al tem­ples and schools in the South, in­tro­duced Hin­di re­li­gious fes­ti­vals like the Ram­leela, taught San­skrit and Hin­di, and com­posed Bha­jans and Kir­tans as part of his is­land-wide out­reach pro­gramme.He "con­duct­ed thou­sands of yag­nas" and "had thou­sands of dis­ci­ples.""He pos­sessed a mu­si­cal voice and devo­tees be­came en­chant­ed by his mel­liflu­ous ren­di­tion of scrip­ture, Shlokas, Bha­jans and Kir­tans alike."

He was in­vit­ed to sev­er­al im­por­tant state func­tions, in­clud­ing the first In­de­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tion.Shar­ma was award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal. He passed away in 1975.Ramkisson said, in a bid to con­tin­ue the fam­i­ly's tra­di­tion of pun­dits, he was sent, at age 16, to pun­dit school."I stayed on­ly one day," he said, the kur­tah and black pants his moth­er made him wear still stamped in his mem­o­ry."Be­ing a pun­dit is some­thing you have to be se­ri­ous about. It's a life­long com­mit­ment.

"You have to be 100 per cent true in what you are do­ing. I felt I wasn't ready as yet," he ex­plained.Hin­duism was a ma­jor part of his life, though, and he was schooled at the Don Miguel Hin­du School and at the Swa­ha tem­ple in Aranguez, where he learnt Hin­di.Ramkisson sings bha­jans, re­cites mantras and gave up eat­ing meat at age five. He loves all kinds of food, in­clud­ing Chi­nese, Ital­ian and Ara­bi­an, he said.

His par­ents are ar­dent Hin­dus. His fa­ther In­dar­jit Ramkissoon is pres­i­dent of the Om Shak­ti Man­dalee tem­ple, and his moth­er is heav­i­ly in­volved in tem­ple ac­tiv­i­ties.Ramkisson's ex­po­sure to a dif­fer­ent type of lifestyle and cul­ture while at­tend­ing South East Port-of-Spain Sec­ondary school be­tween George and Nel­son streets did not change him."Be­fore or af­ter school, I would see a de­liv­ery van be­ing robbed, or blood on the pave­ment from some­one who was shot," he added.

His ca­reer path took him to the School of Busi­ness and Com­put­er Sci­ence where he pur­sued a de­gree in in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy sys­tems.Ramkissoon said he has nev­er been to In­dia and would love to go.As for car­ry­ing on the pun­dit tra­di­tion start­ed by his great-grand­fa­ther, he said, "Maybe lat­er on in life."