For Lorena

Lorena is a Venezuelan blogger living in India. Her blog - Historias de la India- has information in Spanish about India.

In researching some of the answers to questions which people posed for her, she came across my blog and then wanted to know more about Indians living in the Caribbean. She sent some questions which I am answering here.

I thought Lorena would want to know that there have been Indians in Venezuela since the middle of the nineteenth century. Nalini sent this quotation "Walton Look Lai's Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar  P117-"In Trinidad, Indian immigrants had gone over to next-door Venezuela in such numbers that the official reports were unable to estimate exact mortality among the Indians in Trinidad up to 1855""

My friend Pandit Rajin has visited several mandirs and satsanghs in Puerto Ordaz/San Felix where Hindu people have settled.

Here are the answers :

How old are you and what do you do for a living? (If you dont mind to tell me)

I am 40 and I do all kind of things for a living, some of which is related to Information technology

What is your personal opinion about india and his people? 

 India seems a very vast and complex place and different people have different opinions of it. Some people love visiting there and living there, while  other people have migrated from there to live in other places. Some of the people have made great standing Internationally in different fields. There seems to be a lot of poverty and social injustice which is not always dealt with, while there are great developments in other areas.

What are the big differences between indian people and guyanese?

  Very difficult to say since I have not visited India.

Have you ever felt the "necessity" or curiosity to come here to know the culture and the country? Why?

 
I have personally not felt the need to visit India - India seems to come to me in so many ways through the media and there are other vicarious experiences.

Does many people in Guyana travel to India? If thats the case...what are the reasons? 
business...pleasure, religion?

Yes, I think people visit India, and more people would like to visit but it is expensive. People visit for business, religion, education, politics and tourism.

What is the big difference between hinduism here in India and Guyana?

I am not sure - though I think from what I see in the films and on the television, the organisation of the temples is different. In Guyana the temples are organised community groups and are not open 24 hours, while in India the temples are open for 24 hours and have priests available. In Guyana the temple is a social space, I think in India it is only a religious space.

Do you practice arranged marriages in Guyana? (Here in India its the norm) 

  There are a few people who ask others to help them find nice people to get married to. However, the couple are allowed to meet and decide if they want to get married

Do the hindu ladies in Guyana are conservative and home oriented? (you see.. here in India usually ladies go to University but after marriage they become housewives)

  Really? I see that there are many Indian women who work in different ways - in Guyana there are a few Indian women nurses and doctors and I see on television many politicians and academics.. Hindu ladies in Guyana do work in different places (and being a housewife also involves work! ) 
The Prime Minister of Trinidad is a Hindu woman.

I have heard in Trinidad there is racial discrimination between black people and hindus...is that the case in Guyana?

There have been incidents of racial tension and discrimination which have occurred  - though not Hindu specifically but more the 'major' ethnic groups of blacks and Indians . One Guyanese academic wrote  a book to say that Hinduism was anti-black.

What do you love the most from your country?

  The fact that I get to answer questions like these

In general...how is the personality of the people from Guyana?

Very difficult to say, it depends on the personality of the person who is asking the question. Some people find us nice, some people find us not nice .

Have you ever been to Trinidad? are there similarities between Guyana and Trinidad?

Yes - some similarities s in the Hindu religious practices, we have similar language and seem to like similar music (soca, calypso, chutney). We have slightly different ways of cooking the food, even the curry.