An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Hun­dreds of peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ed in one of the largest Phag­wa cel­e­bra­tions host­ed in T&T. The event, or­gan­ised by Spec­trum Ini­tia­tive, was held at the Knowles Street Recre­ation Ground, Curepe, yes­ter­day.

Par­tic­i­pants in­clud­ed both Hin­dus and non-Hin­dus dous­ing each oth­er in abir and pow­der in a vi­brant colour dis­play. Colour­land got un­der­way around 1 pm.

De­spite the late start, ex­cit­ed adults and chil­dren wel­comed the cool spray of abir and splashed coloured pow­der on each oth­er.

Spec­trum Ini­tia­tive pres­i­dent Vinayak Sankar ex­plained the new or­gan­i­sa­tion’s aim was “to up­hold the cul­ture of our fore­fa­thers and en­sure the cul­ture doesn’t die.”

He said they al­so want­ed to in­tro­duce pro­gres­sive cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ences to en­gage the youth so that the tra­di­tion could be passed from one gen­er­a­tion to an­oth­er.

Yes­ter­day’s event was the sec­ond an­nu­al oc­ca­sion to be held since COVID and fea­tured sev­en chow­tal groups from around the coun­try along with top lo­cal singers and dance groups.

Nir­mala Roodal of the Shree Sankar Chow­tal Group, Fe­lic­i­ty, ex­pressed hap­pi­ness at be­ing in­vit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the cel­e­bra­tion.

She said, “I love my cul­ture, and I have been singing for the past 35 years.”

Pledg­ing to keep the tra­di­tion alive, she said, “We have to en­cour­age the younger gen­er­a­tion to get this back, it is very im­por­tant.”

On the gen­er­al break­down in fam­i­ly life and how those who had lost their way could be res­cued, Roodal said, “Our lead­ers have to learn how to talk to the younger gen­er­a­tion. It is not like in our days, where we were sea­soned. This younger gen­er­a­tion, we need them to sup­port them, and we have to talk to them nice­ly to pull them to­wards you.”