Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Translation of Bhartal - Chalo Piya Soyi Rahi from "Chowtal Rang Bahar" done by Ramnarine Sasenarine and Peter Manuel(2010) Sacred and erotic The Pandit shouts at me "Do you know what kind of bollywood song they were dancing Diwali night, don't they read the translations before they decide.. the lyrics are vulgar" .    "Nah we not singing that" one of the devout Hindu men I know says as  we read the translation to my favourite bartaal. I was like what the hell.., somebody planning a night of passion with the 'beloved " and not wanting the husband, elder brother wife to hear anything.. and while beloved means 'Hari, possibly Krishna.. I mean yeah.. we Hindus sing about adultery with God and so as part of the sacred. And when at the end of a chowtaal/Holi programme in the mandir, and the Pandit sings Rang Baarse .. and I think of the context.. I mean is a man singing to he lover while her husband deh bout.. .. and the language is clear.. the...

   Alcohol "When them man finish 'ooraway dhoor' (pick up the ashes the Phagwah morning after the Holika fire ), they walk around the village and sing chowtaal.. and every house, them a get a bottle of bush rum, dem time was bush rum" the man explained to me as we talked about alcohol and Phagwah. Some Hindu organisations ask that Phagwah stay free from alcohol, but some devout Hindus and others will celebrate with alcohol.   The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha has led in trying to make Phagwah and Hindu lives alcohol free One evening after a chowtaal session, Pandit Rajin Balgobind recounted the story of Raja Parikshit and Kali (the asura, not the goddess). Kali, 'evil' resided in four places (and gold) - the place where there was gambling, where there was 'immoral relations between men and women', the places where there was violence; and the places where there was alcohol .  Other Pandits have reminded Hindus and others that Phagwah/Holi is as sacred as...

 The problems..  "My husband consumed alcohol to deal with problems. So he would go drink when he was upset/annoyed and behave like a crazy person, cursing, hitting, screaming throwing around food .."  "... alcohol only causes more problems in relationships as it does not solve anything.. " The woman who was waiting on electricity to join the conversation and sent a text to say why she wanted to come. The violence and abuse in the marriage, increased with alcohol. One of the problems related to alcohol consumption which is not talked about in Guyana.  The other problems which include the death and injuries caused to alcohol induced violence, including drunk driving, the chronic physical and mental health problems. Alcohol is a legal drug in Guyana, celebrated as part of the heritage and culture.  The two alcohol companies in Guyana reported increased profits of 11.7% and 15.9% during a bad year of pandemic and Elections 2020 - while other people were counting lo...

Health Centre The man, slightly drunk, is amusing people waiting  at the health centre .  I am smiling too at some of the things. The happy drunk. He had brought one of his friends to see the doctor.  He opened the plastic bottle which once contained water and now contained another liquid. A woman said 'You cyan drink in hey.. ' "Dem aint seh you cyan drink in hey.. dem seh you cyan smoke... " It is true.. there are posters about the dangers of smoking and tobacco nearby. There are no posters against alcohol consumption.  The health centre has a protocol of refusing entry to drunk people. But that is difficult to do if there is blood visible.  Two other men come in, looking drunk. A woman comes in, she seems in pain. The drunk man says that is dah man wife.  Another woman comes in, barefoot, clothes dirty, slippers in hand. Probably easier to walk barefoot thant with slippers.. Her mother. The drunk man asks her to stand up by the gate. "Oh ga...

by Vidyaratha Kissoon I stopped drinking to deal with my alcohol problems. It makes sense, that if there is a problem then the source of the problem should be removed. It has been about 20 years or so since I have stopped drinking alcohol. The problem I had was that I would be drinking and thinking of the women who told me about the violence they deal with from drunk men, and that if alcohol was not there, their lives would be better. There is no statistical correlation though between domestic violence and alcohol use as there are people who drink who are not abusive , and people who do not drink who are abusive. The reality though for many people is that in their experience of violence, there is alcohol fuelling it. It became a problem for me to talk about domestic violence and removing alcohol. I stopped drinking to deal with this alcohol problem. I stopped drinking because I could not tell young people not to drink, or wait until they were 18 , while I w...

Two beady eyes are staring at me as I eat the dessert. There is some new thing going on with the lizards, that as soon as I have a small bowl and spoon , I see the eyes looking at me, without moving. One, sometimes two. How the hell do they know? The lizard dung is on my papers, on the phone, on the computer sometimes. I am about to get up to take the bowl into the kitchen and I see the graceful brown head turn. What the hell.. let me put down the bowl and watch the lizard come and lick the remains. I am not unselfishly loving  because I have a secret desire that that the Universe will reward me with the flexibility of the lizard as I feed it and clean the dung from all over the possessions. Selfish love is also a motivation too as I am grateful for the opportunity to do some good work with the medical outreach team. I know there is no  making up for the bad things but the secret desire is there that things will balance out somehow. There is a rule that drunk peop...

The alcohol industry has great power in the way it uses sport to market a product that is destructive to many persons FIFA GS Jerôme Valcke from http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/brazil2014/fifa-official-amazed-by-brazil-world-cup-drunkenness-1.2694273 One of the side stories about Brazil's hosting of the World Cup Football is that Brazil had to lift an 11 year ban on alcohol sales in its stadiums - causing violence. Budweiser is a sponsor of the football. There are no reports available of any of the violence, but last week in Brazil , Fifa’s Jérôme Valcke r eportedly told a media outlet that he was unhappy with the amount of alcohol in grounds. ‘’I was amazed by the number of people who were drunk and the level of alcohol. It’s a surprise.”   This apparently must be good for Budweiser and others because Brazil also has to waive the taxes on the alcohol sales for the Partners. And In Guyana , Limacol CPL management tell us that "The LimacolCPL is the B...

Phagwah morning. The first house after the service finish at the mandir. The jhandhi flag was there... and close by, the table with the vodka and rum on it with the bowl of ice. I was fed up, the year before one of my relatives wanted to kill his parents on Phagwah Day. Other memories of people who were drunk.. and being scared of people who might seem 'funny' who switched into violent behaviour.   One of the opinionated Hindu men who used to give lectures at the mandir about everybody and so on.. was taking his drink. I hollered on him.. what example was he setting.. nuff people vex with me.. how could I talk to a big man like that. Same day we were singing at another place.. with a shop.. which was not closed and alcohol was being sold..  I lost my train of thought when I thought of the letter I had written because some Carib was sponsoring a Phagwah Celebration event. After the letter, the event's name was changed. But it was pointless,, because there are Hindu...

Beef Most Hindus around the world do not eat beef, and have an abhorrence of any contact with beef; some do not eat pork and others are vegeterian. Vegeterianism is a Hindu ideal.. and one which I hope to ascribe to someday. Last year while helping out at the wonderful Wildlife Festival in the Rupununi, I found myself in the 'kitchen' as I always do, helping out (or being helped out since there was a need to ensure diplomacy and tact in that offering the help did not mean that the manager was incapable of managing). So, beef was on the menu, and farine or bread. And I found myself standing up, tall in a place with many people who are not so tall with a hunk of beef over my head and the juices dripping on me.. So I managed my morals and said okay, I will help out by not serving the beef, but by serving the other things and that I would ensure that my head did not bounce into the hunk of beef above me. One of my Hindu friends was shocked that I would even be near it and s...

The first letter to the editor I wrote was to the editor of National Geographic way  back in 1982 or sometime like that. The letter was not published. A lot of my letters to the editors have not been published. Writing a letter to the editor is a nerve wracking thing. You never know if it will be accepted, and you wonder if it will generate any negative consequences if it is published.  Sometimes I have written things in anger, which, when I see published, I cringe and think I could have written differently, while others say that those letters tend to be much better and clearer than the ones I would agonise over which in the end apparently are not clear. I am glad to see letters which are from people who were nervous about expressing themselves, especially young people, and I have encouraged a few people to write their letters and send them in. Stabroek News has been the leader in encouraging the letters columns. A few people tell me that is the first place they look in t...