Ravi Dev may think this is a joke. It is not. It is my life

Nov 07, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – You do not grow up rough in south Georgetown and end up being a thin-skinned person. Sometimes, I hesitate in composing things about myself then I would fly into a rage and write them because if I don’t publish them, who is going to record them for me. I have to do it and I don’t care who says I am writing about myself. It is my life.
After reading Ravi Dev on the recent death of Hindi screen actor, Dilip Kumar, I decided to compose this column. Here are three things about me I feel must be published. First, I do not sue people for libel even though I feel as a person operating in the public realm, I have been libeled more than any public figure in the history of this country. Just go back the past 30 years in all the newspaper and read the scandalous things printed about me.
Secondly, I laugh when other people publicly scream-out they have been threatened. From my days as a critic of the PPP government to exposing the Buxton conspiracy to criticising the APNU+AFC regime to condemning the March 2020 election rigging, I got many threats of physical harm. That is over a long period. I never ran to the media about it.
We come to the third aspect of my life, which involves the caption of this column. I consider Ravi Dev a first class intellectual but also a man with a rational way of thinking. I was disappointed as to how he described my activism during the era of different PPP governments.
I got insults in the newspapers and in television commentaries, which used the description of self-hater or anti-Indian personality. Two persons surprised me when they embraced that portrait. One was Ravi, the other was Dr. Baytoram Ramharack.
Dr. Ramharack made an analysis as to why I didn’t like Indian people. He explained that I missed being part of certain cultural circumstances in my life that would have caused me to better appreciate Indian people and Indian culture. The viewpoint from these two highly educated social scientists with sound analytical minds was amazingly ironic. The fact is I grew up in deeper Hindu culture than both gentlemen.
Ravi and Baytoram are now going to laugh out loudly and accuse me of deception in what I am about to layout. Do you know that I have seen every movie with Rajesh Khanna that came to Guyana? I doubt both Ravi and Baytoram have seen as many Indian films as I have. My mother had a Hindu altar in our house that she prayed to every morning. My father played tassa drums at Hindu weddings.
I lived for years in an ashram on Craig Street, Campbellville because it was a guaranteed route to daily meals that I could not get in Wortmanville. There were two of us the resident Swami was fond of and we learnt a lot about Hindu culture from him. Every week we accompanied the Swami to the different religious services that he was asked to perform by Hindu families. The other gentleman was an African Guyanese named Ronald Gordon. Ronald currently lives at 593 C Field, Sophia. His cell phone number is 633-2982. He nearly became the first African Hindu pandit in this county.
I never went to high school but got my GCE education from evening class at Guyana Oriental College owned by a fine human from India – Shruti Kant. The student population was 99 percent Indian. When I went to UG, I hung out with both African and Indian students. I would go to Gandhi Youth Organization with my friend, Soloman, who is the brother-in-law of insurance magnate, Bish Panday. We sang chowtal every year when Phagwah came around.
When my daughter was growing up, she attended, though not consistently, the Vedic Temple in Prashad Nagar. Although I knew former assassinated Agriculture Minister, Sash Sawh from my student days in Canada, I got to know him better from the Vedic Temple.
I could not have given my daughter any other name than a Hindu one because if I had not done so, my mother’s soul would have haunted me. Her Hindu name is Kavita. My wife and I studied in Canada, my daughter in the UK. All three of us have an appreciation for the music and culture of different cultures. All three of us are deeply multi-racial people. All three of us have African, Indian and White friends. I am not anti-Indian, anti-African nor anti-White. I am against people who are racist in any form whatsoever. I am against dictatorial rule whichever ethnic group is in charge. This was and is my life. It will always be like this.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

Ravi Dev may think this is a joke. It is not. It is my life

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Welcome and Sattaur hat-tricks power West Ruimvelt’s emphatic win

Mominul, Jaker help Bangladesh avoid follow on

Rutherford’s stunning century in vain as...

Bentick’s hat-trick lifts YMCA to $1M and...

Final batch of tickets for opening match released

NSC to host National Awards Ceremony on Thursday

Features/Columnists

The business class also funds undemocratic parties

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Too many sharks too close for comfort

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Ravi Dev may think this is a joke. It is not. It is my life

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]