Sto­ries by

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Leroy “Black Stal­in” Cal­liste and the late chut­ney cre­ator Sun­dar Popo lived like broth­ers de­spite com­ing from dif­fer­ent re­li­gious and cul­tur­al back­grounds.

De­spite this, they both be­came bo­som bud­dies, shar­ing their mu­si­cal tal­ent and com­po­si­tions.

And de­spite their many dif­fer­ences, they shared one sim­i­lar vi­sion of pro­mot­ing racial uni­ty and har­mo­ny in T&T.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Sun­dar’s wid­ow Keyso Sun­dar­lal Popo re­called how Black Stal­in, who died ear­li­er this week, treat­ed her with love and dig­ni­ty long af­ter her hus­band’s death in May 2000.

She said Black Stal­in al­ways checked up on her and her fam­i­ly, en­quir­ing about their needs and well-be­ing.

“He was nice. Al­ways nice,” she said wist­ful­ly.

Black Stal­in and his fam­i­ly of­ten vis­it­ed Sun­dar at his Lal­be­har­ry Trace, Mon­key Town, Bar­rack­pore home, Keyso re­called.

“He used to stay here and Sun­dar and he would do their thing and crack jokes,” she re­called.

It was not un­com­mon for Stal­in to of­fer a help­ing hand.

Re­call­ing her last con­ver­sa­tion with Stal­in, Keyso said he called and ex­plained to her why he was no longer com­ing to vis­it them.

“He told me, ‘girl I’m sick, you know I can’t come to see you’. I told him it is so good to hear your voice,” she re­called.

She not­ed Stal­in’s con­di­tion got worse and he lost move­ment in the right side of his body.

One year younger than Stal­in, who was 81, Keyso said she her­self rarely leaves her home.

How­ev­er, Keyso said she plans to at­tend Stal­in’s fu­ner­al on Thurs­day and of­fer per­son­al con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly.

Re­call­ing the 1995 Di­manche Gras trib­ute that Stal­in per­formed, “Trib­ute to Sun­dar, Popo” with Popo on stage, Keyso said Stal­in loved Sun­dar’s com­po­si­tions and com­pli­ment­ed him (Sun­dar) for his con­tri­bu­tion to chut­ney mu­sic.

Black Stal­in won his last of five Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tles with the Popo trib­ute song and “In Time.”

Keyso said Stal­in’s death brought back mem­o­ries of her late hus­band.

“I re­al­ly miss him (Sun­dar). It is hard,” she added.

In­side Keyso’s house stood all her late hus­band’s awards, tro­phies and para­pher­na­lia. She showed the glass­es, as well as the cream-coloured shoes Sun­dar wore when he went on stage with Stal­in for the 1995 Di­manche Gras show at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain. How­ev­er, she said the fa­mous red jack­et which Sun­dar wore that night was bor­rowed and nev­er re­turned.

Keyso said the val­ues that Black Stal­in im­part­ed to this coun­try must live on long af­ter his death.

She said racial uni­ty, har­mo­ny and hu­mil­i­ty res­onat­ed with Stal­in.

“I hope he is in a bet­ter place. May God bless his soul wher­ev­er it is so that he can rest in peace,” she said.

Keyso’s care­tak­er, Ghan­sham Ma­hadeo, al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the Cal­liste fam­i­ly, say­ing Stal­in will al­ways be re­mem­bered.