Michael Dolsingh, a Trinidadian aviation expert and former colleague of author Hemraj Ramdath at the North American Launch of the latter’s book ‘Beyond Indentureship, Indo-Trinidadian Entrepreneurs’, (Royards Publishing, 2023), held at Singh’s Roti Shop at Lauderdale Lakes, Florida on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Ramdath in blue suit below at book launch. Dolsingh commented:
DIASPORA ..
IN THIS ROOM, MANY IDENTIFY WITH BEING OF THE CARIBBEAN DIASPORA IN NORTH-AMERICA ..
.. BUT WE SOMETIMES FORGET THAT OUR FOREBEARS – UNLESS THEY WERE OF THE INDIGENOUS CARIB OR ARAWAK PEOPLES – WERE THEMSELVES PART OF ANOTHER DIASPORA .. OF THE EUROPEAN, THE AFRICAN, THE SOUTH ASIAN, LATER THE MIDDLE-EASTERN, DIASPORA ..
OUR FOREFATHERS OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT – THEN OF ‘BHARAT’, AND STARTING A CENTURY BEFORE BRITISH COLONIAL RULE ENDED THERE – BEGAN ENDURING THEIR PERILOUS JOURNEY WEST .. INTO A FUTURE OF UNCERTAINTY .. OF MOSTLY THE UNKNOWN .. UNDER A CRUEL YOKE OF INDENTURESHIP .. NOT UNLIKE SLAVERY: OF UNSPEAKABLE OPPRESSION ..
THEY PERSEVERED .. THEY TOILED, AND THEY SACRIFICED, AND THEY SAVED .. TOILED AND SACRIFICED AND SAVED .. ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT .. IN THEIR NEW DISTANT HOMELAND, THEY NURTURED SOME KIND OF INNATE DEVOTION TO THEIR NEXT GENERATIONS’ ADVANCEMENT, WHICH THEY FELT WOULD BE ACHIEVED THROUGH: EDUCATION .. THE PROFESSIONS .. BUSINESS .. IT WAS AN INBRED DRIVER .. A RELENTLESS DETERMINATION ..
WHICH BRINGS ME TO HEMRAJ RAMDATH – TWO OR THREE OR FOUR GENERATIONS LATER, DEPENDING ON HOW YOU COUNT ..
HEMRAJ – A PRODUCT OF INDO-TRINIDADIAN AND BROADER ‘TRINI’ VALUES .. AND VISION .. OF THE HARD WORK AND SACRIFICE OF HIS LINEAGE ..
.. HE WORKED IN MULTILATERAL ORGANISATIONS LIKE THE UN-ECLA .. AND IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR – AT SHELL .. WITH S M JALEEL .. AT PETROTRIN .. AND IN RECENT YEARS, AS AN ACCOMPLISHED PRIVATE ENTRETRENEUR ..
I FIRST MET HEMRAJ WHEN HE WAS AT SHELL, CHARGED WITH EASTERN CARIBBEAN RESPONSIBILITIES .. IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE THAT WAS ALMOST FOUR DECADES AGO .. I WAS AT ‘BEEWEE’ THEN AND THE AIRLINE WAS INTRODUCING SERVICE TO ST MAARTEN, ON ITS PORT-OF-SPAIN TO KINGSTON RUN .. HEMRAJ MADE SURE WE HAD FUEL FOR THE FLIGHTS ..
TODAY HEMRAJ, IN A DIFFERENT ROLE, IS CONTRIBUTING TO ‘OUR STORY’ – A STORY OF DIASPORA, AND OF PROGRESS .. HE HAS RESEARCHED, AND HE HAS WRITTEN ON ‘THE JOURNEY’: THE VISION AND DEDICATION OF OUR FOREFATHERS MANIFEST IN SOME OF THEIR DESCENDENTS .. SUCCESS BEYOND THEIR IMAGINATION, AND FOR SURE WELL-BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THEIR WORK AS INDENTUREDS AND EARLY SETTLERS ..
HEMRAJ, THE AUTHOR, TELLS THE STORIES OF THE BATTOOS AND THE CHARRANS .. AND OF VARIOUS RAMPERSADS AND MOHAMMEDS .. THE RAHAMUTS AND LUTCHMANSINGHS AND SULTAN-KHANS .. AND OTHERS .. – INCLUDING MY COUSINS, THE CHARLESES, WITH AN INSTRUCTIVE SIDE-STORY ABOUT THEM .. ABOUT THEIR GROWTH BEYOND A FLEDGLING, HOMESPUN ENTERPRISE INTO WHAT IS TODAY REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SOFT-DRINK AND REAL-ESTATE AND HOTEL BUSINESSES, BEGINNING AFTER THEY HAD CHANGED THEIR FAMILY SURNAME TO SOMETHING THAT SOUNDED MORE ‘ANGLO-SAXON’, MORE LIKE THE COLONIAL RULERS OF THE DAY .. IT PROVIDES YET ANOTHER INSIGHT INTO ‘THE JOURNEY’ ..
.. WITHOUT BOOKS LIKE HEMRAJ’S, STORIES LIKE THESE WOULD BE LOST .. .. THE NEXT GENERATIONS WOULD HAVE BEEN ROBBED OF OUR STORIES, THEIR STORIES TOO, AND OF OUR FOREBEARS’ STORIES, AND OF ‘WHAT IT TOOK’ ..
I AM PROUD TO INTRODUCE HEMRAJ, NOW AS A RESEARCHER OF SIGNIFICANT PARTS OF OUR ‘TRINI’ HISTORY, AND AS AN AUTHOR, YES; BUT ALSO AS AN OLD FRIEND .. AS SHERRY’S DEVOTED HUSBAND, AND RAMONA’S AND REHANNA’S DADDY, AND AS 10-YEAR OLD SARINA’S GRANDAD & NANA ..
.. LADIES & GENTLEMEN: HEMRAJ RAMDATH ..
Michael R Dolsingh
Weston, Florida
June 29, 2023