Kamla: Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar (L) touches the feet of Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil
Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar must have been humming this tune while walking back to her ancestral village of Bhelpur in the Buxar district of Bihar in eastern India. It turned out to be an emotional pilgrimage for the Prime Minister who was on a 10-day tour of India this month.
The visiting VIP’s great grandfather Ram Lakhan Mishra who hailed from this village, set out for the Caribbean islands in 1889 as a Girmitia labourer. He boarded the Volga ship from the then Calcutta on October 21, 1889.
After more than 200 years, its time for one his descendant to pay a visit to that same village.
Accompanied by husband Gregory Bissessar and other relatives who came from Port-of-Spain, the Prime Minister was overwhelmed by the people’s response when she landed there in Indian Air Forcer helicopters on January 12. She straightaway went to the house of her uncle Jagdish Mishra on foot. The narrow lane on which she walked was laid with bricks and covered with green carpet.
Dressed in a red sari with floral borders and a matching flower tucked in her hair, the 60-year-old Kamla found it tough to fight back her tears as the whole village came out to great its ‘daughter’. The Prime Minister too could not hold her back as she went ahead to mingle with the villagers.
“Whatever I am today is because Bihar is in my DNA and whatever my ancestors have taught me,” she confessed.
She referred to the villagers as Bhaiyon and Bahno (brothers and sisters in Hindi).
Referring to the background under which her forefathers migrated to a far-off place, Kamla said they were then not educated people but they had a vision for a better life. “When they went, they had no gold, no diamond, no traveller cheque and they had no facility of cellphone, Internet, Blackberry and Facebook. What they took with them was Ramayan, Gita and Koran and the lifestyle, tradition, values from this land,” she said as the audience clapped and cheered.
The lady had a message for the villagers too. “Education is the only way to get rid of poverty…Get your daughters educated. For future generations, do what my ancestors did: give education to children.” The Trinidad & Tobago PM and her entourage stayed at the village for about one hour and 40 minutes.
In spite of being born and brought up outside India, she had not forgotten her tradition and roots.
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar, with cricketers Brian Lara and Daren Ganga
She surprised everyone when she touched the feet of India’s President, Pratibha Patil, after being presented with the “Pravasi Bhartiya Samman” award in Jaipur a day before. Persad-Bissessar, who was the first to be awarded with the “Pravasi” medallion and a citation by the President, made hundreds of Non-Resident Indians (NRI) and People of Indian Origin (PIO) present at the occasion remember their traditional roots. The Indian President immediately held her by her shoulders and hugged her in a gesture of blessing. It was a great sight of unity between the two countries.
On return from her ancestral village, in the evening, she visited the Hooghly river banks off the city of Kolkata from where her ancestors took their ship for the West Indies.
She offered flowers at the memorial and planted sapling to mark her visit and then looked out on the sea. The wind blowing from the sea must have made her nostalgic. “As I was approaching the jetty I was thinking of those who left their country so long ago. They must have left this land with heavy hearts leaving their loved ones behind. They left with sadness but also with hope. Here I came back with great joy and am thinking what an opposite feeling it must have been to those of my ancestors who left from here,” she said.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar comforts a child during a visit to her ancestral village Bhelpur in Buxar district of Bihar
She was quick to gave due respect to the role her ancestors played in building bridges between the two countries. “Our ancestors sacrificed for us,” she commented. And because of their sacrifice that the two countries enjoy such a beautiful relation between them
The Prime Minister must have travelled back in time as she said “I was thinking of my father and grandfather and wishing they were holding my hand as I came up here.”
As wintry dusk enveloped the whole area it suddenly seemed 1834 was not too ancient. Some people up there must be equally satisfied seeing their daughter back home.
