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With music as his mission
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Kries Ramkhelawan, one of the Chutney pop singers from Surinam, takes pride in his Indian roots and says it is the unique cultural wealth of India, which gives many Indian settlers in Surinam a special identity.
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Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
PHILOSOPHER SINGER: Kries Ramkhelawan's muse is drawn from contemporary society.
HE COMES across as a total foreigner . His deliberate attempt to speak in Hindi gives him out as a non-resident who has a pronounced accent both in English and his native tongue. That is Kries Ramkhelawan for you, the Chutney pop singer from Surinam. The quizzical name draws an explanation from him even before the question is formed. "There has been fast singing earlier but then it was in imitation of the West. We (meaning Indians residing in the Caribbean) have developed it into a hot, spicy singing with a little of this and a little of that (meaning Indian and western) and gave it a distinctive identity.'' All attempts, according to him, were to hold on to the Indian roots long after being uprooted from that land, and not drift among diverse cultures that form a part of their now native country.
"The lore of our forefathers, who were brought to Surinam 130 years ago much against their will, still lies with us and will be handed over to our children through our typically Indian customs and culture. We see to it that our progeny do not lose track of our origins though we lead a fairly secular life. Our official language is Dutch, which we learn but along with it comes Hindi and its dialects (Surinami is a mixture of Hindi, Bhojpuri, Dutch and English languages). We take pride that our ancestors belonged to India and though we are in a distant land, any incident involving India tends to stir a chord in our hearts,'' he says in a voice choked with emotion.
His penchant for music was evident from childhood when he used to sing bhajans in a mandir in Saramacca (a district in Surinam). He decided to devote his life to the pursuit of music vis-à-vis academics and threw himself into recreating ancient forms of Qawali, Bhojpuri bhajans, etc that were fading from public life among the Indian community out there. Spirituality held a special attraction for him and most of his singing is tinged with philosophical strains. "I am not a singer by profession in the strict sense. I am a prospering businessman as are most in my team here. We cannot survive on singing alone. That would make music a totally commercial consideration. Though I'd love to have a lot of people around the world listen to Chutney, I don't want to literally `sell' myself. It doesn't sound palatable to me,'' he states.
Kries had dexterously moulded the village songs sung by his ancestors over the years at home gatherings into a fast track beat akin to the western pop without damaging the Indianness. The folk constituent is camouflaged in the racy music and rendition so that the cruder content is not too obvious. "There was a time when the Indian community banned these songs as they featured the naana-naani (maternal grandparents) in lewd undertones, spoke volumes on physical aspects of a maiden and so on, which hurt the sentiments of our forefathers. They wished to preserve the sanctity of Indian culture in a foreign land and never approved of exposure of deficiencies in the system. But then I devised a way in which the vulgarity could be mitigated without having to lose the nativeness.'' So Chutney content is tickling without being brazen.
He has cut his first album in 1975 for Surinam Television Foundation (STVS). There was no looking back after that. He has a repertoire of nearly 500 songs most of which are penned by him. His muse is drawn from contemporary society and his philosophical bent of mind makes it possible for him to incorporate a moral within the lines without sounding didactic. "My ancestors may have belonged to Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. I am the fourth generation Indian who has never lived in India even for a brief spell and cannot recollect any vague relative existing here. Yet I feel a bond within me with this country, which was once the motherland of my great, great grandfathers. I want this `pull' to be felt even in my son. In fact each one of us there nurture the same sentiments. We make it a point to carry on the customs handed over by our fathers and forefathers from India to our next generation so that they may feel the sense of belonging to this nation though not actually residents of it. We bring up our children on the adage -- do as I do and not do as I say,'' a sentimental strain can be discerned in his voice.
What strikes one as exceptional in Kries Ramkhelawan is the spirit of a true Indian. "When our ancestors left India they did not carry with them a pistol or a lathi or any other crude weapon. Instead they took along with them a Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana , Quran, a dholak and a tabla and perhaps a few pictures of their gods. Today, if we are able to uphold our Indianness among diverse cultural exposures in our country it is only because our heritage is intact in these invaluable possessions. I call this the invisible power of parampara (heritage), which is still keeping us to our roots. The tree may wither away with time, but as long as the root is alive, there is hope of shoots coming up. Since we have carried our traditions along today we are able to retain our identity,'' he proclaims with emphasis.
There are nearly three lakh Indians in Surinam. These immigrants were twice removed from their own soil. Post-independence, though they were not exactly repatriated, they were given a choice to leave Suriname or stay. Many migrated to distant lands like Canada, hardly anyone chose to come back to India. By then perhaps they were comfortably placed in terms of money. "Dukhi Pariwar, is a film made on Indian immigrants in Surinam and their plight. It was penned by me after an in depth research of non-residents world over. It will be released shortly,'' he reveals.
What about all those recently migrated NRIs (especially those in the USA) who are proud of their foster land and look down upon their own motherland as devoid of basic comforts, basic qualities of honesty, diligence and sincerity, who crave for an American citizenship for their unborn children? "They will some day realise the value of their own native land, its richness not in terms of money and technology but in the more real terms of spirituality, heritage and history. I am an optimist. Going to distant lands in search of pastures anew is not wrong but a break in value systems is not warranted. I am confident that Indian culture is so strong that it can survive any onslaught of modernity which will be a temporary phenomenon and withstand the test of time,'' he talks as if foreseeing the future.
RANEE KUMAR
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