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Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Veteran broadcaster Hans Hanoomansingh laid to rest

by

Carisa Lee
70 days ago
20250715

Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

The life of vet­er­an broad­cast­er, cul­tur­al icon and for­mer politi­cian Dr Hans­ley “Hans” Hanoomans­ingh was cel­e­brat­ed yes­ter­day as he was laid to rest at the Curepe Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

Hanoomans­ingh died on Ju­ly 4 at the age of 83, af­ter a pe­ri­od of ill­ness.

Dozens of peo­ple filled the church to pay their fi­nal re­spects to Hanoomans­ingh, who was known as an agent of change and had a heart of wis­dom and love for learn­ing.

His son Kurt said his fa­ther did not lose these traits, even as he dealt with the grief of los­ing his son Pe­ter in Au­gust 2022 and health is­sues that start­ed lat­er that year.

“Yet still, he per­se­vered. I nev­er re­al­ly heard him com­plain, though I know he was griev­ing and he was in in­cred­i­ble pain,” he said.

Kurt shared that dur­ing that time, his fa­ther start­ed think­ing about his bi­og­ra­phy, which, un­for­tu­nate­ly, he did not get a chance to com­plete.

His younger broth­er, Gideon Hanoomans­ingh, be­lieves the im­pact Hans made on T&T in me­dia, cul­ture and pol­i­tics need­ed to be heard, as he chal­lenged bi­og­ra­phers Prem­nath Gup­ta and Dr Jerome Teelucks­ingh to vol­un­teer as wit­ness­es of his­to­ry.

“To give to­mor­row’s gen­er­a­tions a bet­ter in­sight in­to this re­mark­able in­di­vid­ual who lit that can­dle and burnt it so bright­ly to the very end,” Gideon said.

Hanoomans­ingh was first known for his calm, au­thor­i­ta­tive voice that brought news and pub­lic af­fairs in­to homes across T&T on Ra­dio Guardian and lat­er opened his own ra­dio sta­tion, Her­itage Ra­dio, to pro­mote cul­tur­al­ly rich and re­spon­si­ble con­tent.

“Her­itage Ra­dio had a pol­i­cy not to ad­ver­tise al­co­hol or meat prod­ucts dur­ing Ra­madan and Di­vali. For Spar­row’s 75th birth­day, Hans ded­i­cat­ed 12 hours to cel­e­brate the oc­ca­sion,” Gideon shared.

In 1966, at the age of 24, Hanoomans­ingh was se­lect­ed as the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment (MP) for Ca­roni East. Gideon re­mem­bered his broth­er’s ded­i­ca­tion to that role as well.

“We were cam­paign­ing in Palmiste Vil­lage, Long­denville, and some­one passed on a car fir­ing gun­shots in the crowd, and Hans, who was speak­ing at the time, shout­ed, ‘The Lord is my light and my sal­va­tion; whom shall I fear?’ His ar­dent helper said to him, ‘Get your tail in the car; you go pray lat­er,’” Gideon shared as he laughed with the con­gre­ga­tion.

He said Hanoomans­ingh spent most of his life in the pub­lic eye, but those clos­est to him wit­nessed a deeply per­son­al side. There were the lyrics he used to court his wife, Myr­na, on the steps of Rousil­lac Pres­by­ter­ian School in the 1960s.

And there was his re­la­tion­ship with his niece Yasha, who sang You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban be­cause that’s ex­act­ly what he did for her and so many oth­ers present.

His son Kurt said he was still strug­gling to come to terms with his fa­ther’s death, un­able to ful­ly grasp how big a void his ab­sence would leave in their lives.

“I was very loved and sup­port­ed, and he’d drop any­thing if he had to pri­ori­tise some­thing for us,” he said.

Hanoomans­ingh’s oth­er son, Ravi, said his fa­ther was a true “Tri­ni to the bone,” as every­thing was bet­ter in T&T, even dial­y­sis.

“Dad al­ways talked about the ex­cel­lent care re­ceived in Toron­to, but quick to al­ways find a way to leave for Trinidad,” he shared.

Of­fi­ciant Rev Adri­an DE Sie­u­nar­ine used the first let­ters of the icon’s very name to frame his mes­sage, draw­ing on his life and lega­cy.

‘H’ stood for a heart of wis­dom, a qual­i­ty that de­fined Hans’s ap­proach to jour­nal­ism, pol­i­tics, and fam­i­ly life.

‘A’ rep­re­sent­ed the an­cient ways, a trib­ute to his deep re­spect for tra­di­tion, cul­ture, and the val­ues passed down through gen­er­a­tions.

‘N’ sym­bol­ised new op­por­tu­ni­ties, a nod to his for­ward-think­ing vi­sion, es­pe­cial­ly in open­ing up the me­dia space and sup­port­ing young tal­ent.

‘S’ stood for spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, the qui­et yet steady faith that guid­ed him through both tri­umph and tragedy.

Among those present at the ser­vice were for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ters Win­ston Dook­er­an and Dr Bhoen­dra­datt “Bhoe” Tewarie, Con­gress of the Peo­ple founder Prakash Ra­mad­har, and for­mer speak­er of the House Naz­im Mo­hammed.


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