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Sunday, February 16, 2025

Rikki Jai expresses love to his sons

Fa­ther­hood...a role, not a ti­tle

by

20120615

Chut­ney so­ca singer Rik­ki Jai says the most im­por­tant les­son from the teach­ings of his fa­ther has been his abil­i­ty to be dis­ci­plined in his ap­proach to every­thing in his life. This, he says, has led to his suc­cess through­out his life. The 2011 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch is the fa­ther of two sons. He says his chil­dren, eight and six, are al­ready learn­ing that dis­ci­pline is very im­por­tant to him. As Fa­ther's Day rolls in this week­end, Jai, whose giv­en name is Sam­raj Jaimun­gal, says his boys, Aashish and Vaashish, are very dif­fer­ent in many ways. "One is very shy and the oth­er is not. One is very ex­pres­sive of his feel­ings and the oth­er a lot less. "One is very artis­tic with draw­ings and oth­er artis­tic things and the oth­er loves to sing. "But they both love to dance," he said. Rik­ki Jai be­came a fa­ther for the first time at 38. He was al­ready 14 years in­to his ca­reer and said he sim­ply con­tin­ued with his work, tak­ing it all in stride. "I nev­er have and will nev­er see my kids as a hin­drance to my life or ca­reer. In fact, my chil­dren give me the in­spi­ra­tion to keep go­ing and to ac­com­plish more in my ca­reer," he said.

"At the age of four, my son played the key­board for his grad­u­a­tion from pre-school and at five, my first son wrote a song for me to sing-these are my proud­est mo­ments thus far, as a fa­ther," he boast­ed.

Proud to be dad

Ad­mit­ting that he cher­ish­es the time he gets to spend with his boys, whether it be do­ing home­work or fun ac­tiv­i­ties, Jai says he is hap­py that he is able to pro­vide them with that as­sur­ance that he is al­ways there for them. Asked what he felt was the most im­por­tant role of a fa­ther, he said: "Be­ing on the job, stay­ing on the job and lov­ing the job." With con­stant tour­ing, one would imag­ine his ca­reer would pose a chal­lenge to his parental oblig­a­tions. But he said he works hard at bal­anc­ing his ca­reer and the time he spends with his boys and his fam­i­ly. "When they were small­er, it wasn't re­al­ly a chal­lenge but now as they are get­ting big­ger, it's get­ting tough to leave them for long pe­ri­ods," he ex­plained. He says his sons are both very at­tached to him and the sad­ness in their voic­es and faces hurts him deeply when he leaves them to go on tour.

Not a ti­tle, but a role

High­light­ing that fa­ther­hood is a role and not a ti­tle, Rik­ki Jai called on the fa­thers of T&T to cher­ish the role, say­ing that they would reap what they sow. "Man up and ac­cept your re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with pride and love the chil­dren, be­cause they de­serve that and so much more if we, as par­ents want them to be the best that they can be," he said. "Be the provider, the com­forter, the lis­ten­er, the teacher-the every­thing to your kids."


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