Shas­tri Boodan

The St An­drews Sports and Cul­tur­al Group of Cou­va de­liv­ered an un­for­get­table In­di­an Clas­si­cal Singing Show­case on Sun­day, as a ca­pac­i­ty au­di­ence filled the Cou­va South Au­di­to­ri­um to wit­ness four of T&T’s finest vo­cal tal­ents.

Lead­ing the vo­cal pa­rade was Devashish Ram­dath, al­so known by his stage name De­va Ra­ja, a sea­soned artiste whose decade-long ca­reer spans chut­ney, bha­jans and lo­cal clas­si­cal gen­res. Ram­dath, a res­i­dent of Long­denville in cen­tral Trinidad, has made a mark with his in­ter­pre­ta­tions of tra­di­tion­al khim­ta, thum­ri and ghaz­al pieces, in­clud­ing stand­out per­for­mances like Sa­da Shiv and Baake Brij Naari .

Join­ing him was Dubraj Per­sad, a clas­si­cal vo­cal cham­pi­on from Wa­ter­loo, whose ac­co­lades in­clude vic­to­ries in pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tions such as the Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Coun­cil’s an­nu­al clas­si­cal singing con­tests. Per­sad is known for his time­less sig­na­ture clas­sic Goon­ga Gan­na.

An­oth­er lu­mi­nary on stage was Suresh Ma­haraj, cel­e­brat­ed both as a singer and in­stru­men­tal­ist—of­ten ac­com­pa­ny­ing his vo­cal ren­di­tions with the tabla or har­mo­ni­um—whose prowess in up­hold­ing clas­si­cal tra­di­tions has gar­nered com­mu­ni­ty-wide ad­mi­ra­tion.

Adding a re­fresh­ing fe­male per­spec­tive, Cyn­tra Sookoo, of Bar­rack­pore, held her own as the sole woman per­former of the night. Known for her emo­tive voice and el­e­gant stage pres­ence, she has fre­quent­ly fea­tured in cul­tur­al show­cas­es across T&T.

The event, pa­tro­n­ised by Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath, him­self a long-time sup­port­er of the club dat­ing back to his teenage years, kicked off sharply at 3 pm and con­tin­ued well in­to the night, end­ing af­ter 10 pm.

A burst of live tas­sa drum­ming cap­ti­vat­ed the au­di­ence mid-pro­gramme—many left their seats and gy­rat­ed in time to the hyp­not­ic rhythms that em­body the In­do Trinida­di­an cul­tur­al heart­beat.

Club pres­i­dent Alan “Taxi” Seep­er­sad said that funds raised would sup­port “The club’s char­i­ta­ble and cul­tur­al en­deav­ours.”