Rest in Peace my brother, Ashram

Ashram (left) with Ajit Praimsingh

ASHRAM MAHARAJ
From Ariti Jankie, Miami

Two years ago, my brother Teekaram died of a heart attack. He was the same age as Ashram and so much alike that after his passing, Ashram became my Teekaram.
I watched him smoking cigarettes with love in my heart and saw his brown eyes light up each time we met. He had a spot on the floor where he used to lie down to watch television, had a most impressive collection of music, made the best tea and coffee and cooked delicious and elaborate meals to serve his guests just like my beloved Teekaram.
Waking up late on Monday ( November 7) morning after a sinus attack, I read the first email from Phoolo Danny.
“Ashram Maharaj passed.”
It could have been a mistake, I thought.
The second email from Loaknath Dubey, a friend of both Ashram and myself stated, “I already went down on my knees and said a prayer for this brother.”
Rajnie Ramlakhan’s email account showed up and was signed by Ramdath Jagessar. He wanted to know more.
Ajit Praimsingh was comprehensive as he always is and there was no doubt that Ashram Maharaj whom I said goodbye to just three weeks ago at the door to Mario’s Pizza at Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas was no more.
Alone at home in Miami, I could feel the scream fighting to surface; so deep was the grief and like every other time when I lost someone dear, I lit the deeya and calmed down to speak in spirit to Ashram.
I saw him smile and the questions disappeared. My heart was filled with a treasure chest of memories he had given to me especially in the last year following the release of his book, “Green Card Doolahin”.
We had travelled to Cedros for Balki Pooja, spent the day at Nu-Image Simplex Complex in New Grant for Chokka Fest, met at Brothers Road Recreation Ground on Indian Arrival Day (May 30) and after the formalities rushed to Mid Centre Mall Car Park, Chaguanas for Mere Desh celebrations. Ashram also hosted a dinner for visiting professor Frank Birbalsingh and afterwards I sat with him and Rajnie Ramlakhan who passed away recently for a confidential chat. We were members of the India Alumni Association of Trinidad and Tobago and on Independence Day joined an equally precious friend Doolarchan Hanoomansingh and Jairaj Singh for a concert at Williamsville Secondary School.
With Ashram the distribution of my novel “Hush, Don’t Cry” ran parallel with “Green Card Doolahin”. He dropped off books for me and collected cheques and I contacted sales.
In Ashram, I had my brother Teekaram who loved to drive as much as I hated to.
Ashram introduced me to a group of writers who met for a second volume of “The Contributors,” a Chaguanas Borough Corporation project and though he opted out of writing profiles having written more than 40 pieces in the first volume, took me to interview the Sri Kishen Chowtal Group in Felicity. We spent many hours with the all-male group at the mandir. He was also with me when I visited the families of the late Noor Mohammed and Mahadeo Vyas both of Charlieville. We went to the home of Veera Bhajan where Ashram found that Veera’s mother was from his village and at the Vyas residence, introduced himself to Mahadeo’s widow as the son of one of her childhood friends.
We interviewed real estate guru, Vishnu Tikasingh who had found a house for Ashram at New Settlement, off the Caroni Savannah Road, Charlieville. Vishnu made an offer to repurchase Ashram’s home. We found Dr Vishnu Jeelal and spent hours talking about our days in India. Ashram spent seven years at Hyderabad while Vishnu was at Delhi and Kashmir. I lived in New Delhi for fourteen years.
Ashram went to look for coconut water to buy while my son Arjan and I fixed a tyre. He bought chocolate tea at Mario’s and urged me to drink it instead of coffee to keep him company as he had his breakfast.
There are mango shoots growing around my house at Realize Junction Road, Princes Town from the seeds of luscious mangoes he filled in bags for me during the last mango season. And the last time I visited his home three weeks ago, he gave me one of the avocados he had purchased at the market. We both had won two pineapples each at the Chokka Fest in a competition where we had to name the singer and the movie of songs that were played. There wasn’t an Indian song, Ashram did not know. He told me the answers and like excited children we went up to collect the pineapple prize and have our photograph clicked by Hanooman.
And while travelling home, Ashram exchanged the big pineapples I had gotten for his smaller ones but then I went to his home as I had been doing almost every week and ate most of the pineapple that was served by his girlfriend Nalini.
As we drove about, Ashram related the short stories he planned to write. One was on cricket and another on funerals.
He was full of humor and had a cute way of telling his stories. One day when he was out jogging, he saw a heap of long play CDs thrown out by the roadside.
“I got so excited. I gone easy, easy and pick them up and walked slowly home,” he said with that twinkle in his eyes.
He was an idealist and perfectionist. He had housework to do every weekend. He was precise and punctual. He drove his friends crazy at times. He also had the biggest heart was so proud of his nephews and nieces who had scored at Mastana Bahar. He went to Yagnas where his brother officiated and together we visited his niece in Princes Town who was married to Pundit Mukesh.
All night long, I thought of the times I had spent with Ashram and this morning as I sit down to share some of my precious moments with this friend/brother, I realize how close we had become and how I am now left to lose Teekaram all over again.
Ashram, go with God and don’t forget your friends as we will never forget you. In spirit you will be among us and your contribution will not be lost. I wanted to be there as they take your body to your home in Charlieville and later to Penal before going to Mosquito Creek. I have been spared this sorrow. Go my friend and we shall meet in the next life once again.

Water more than flour!

The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) is the worst public utility in Trinidad and Tobago. That is precisely why I wonder how public servants could elect a man from WASA to head their trade union. Tells us something about public servants doesn't it? When he settles for one percent or something close to that they get vex.

On Thursday, June 9, 2011 every one I met in the street went on and on about the brown water in the taps. Water did not get brown when Horace GRIMES became CEO of WASA, it became browner.

But now he is gone. The new CEO, appointed when the People's Partnership came into power, is a former public utilities minister Ganga Singh. I don't know if anyone remembers that when Ganga was minister he promised water for all by 2000. Nor do I know if you would remember that as Minister Ganga shared a platform with Kamla Persad-Bissessar in her Siparia constituency and they got carried away about who could lay more pipe. It is obvious therefore that Kamla was satisfied with Ganga's pipe-laying promise and performance for her to name him WASA CEO when she became Prime Minister in 2010.

The story I want to tell involves a broken sewer main in the middle of an intersection in my street i.e Torrance and Moody Stuart streets. I first called WASA on March 10 to report the leak. I did not give my phone number so I assume that their system captured it because they once called to get directions. That intersection is extremely busy since the first part of the street is a no entry. There is a Roman Catholic Church and school on my street. I pleaded with WASA to repair the leak before the Easter weekend and then I pleaded with them to repair the leak before school reopened. I have had to witness a parishioner going to Easter vigil get splashed with sewer water and school boys, being boys, kicking the water on each other in the afternoon.
On April 22, WASA finally sent a crew to "examine" the leak. Maybe the leak passed the test because nothing happened. I kept calling every single day. Sometimes I waited on the line for 10 minutes before it timed out and disconnected the call.

Well the news is that on June 1 when I reached home in the afternoon there was a huge pile of dirt in the middle of the intersection, three pieces of stick planted in the dirt and some tape tied around the stick. Heavy rainfall threw down the stick, cars began to pass on the dirt, the leak became worse and the minor water main leak began flooding the street. Great work don't you think? Take the prize WASA!

I couldn't stop calling. My final call was on Thursday June 9. The conversation was as follows:
WASA: (Pleasantries etc) Theron speaking
ME: Good Day Terrance
WASA: No it is Theron
ME: Sorry Theron. Your recording says my call may be recorded for quality of service. I want you to record my call because I want quality service. I am calling from (and a summary of my efforts since March 10). Theron tried to ask me for my phone number so he could pull up the report (s)
ME: (continuing) No let me finish this because I am only going to say it once. If I come home on Monday and this leak is not fixed I am going to walk around San Fernando with a baseball bat and anytime I see a WASA vehicle taking children to school, or taking women to the grocery or parked in front of a rum shop I will smash the windscreen
I hang up.

Lo and behold on Friday morning three huge trucks with plenty workers drive up. So am I happy? Well when I return in the evening having gone with my friends to Maracas Bay: SAME OLD STORY. Not even a sign of work and residents were willing to tell me that the men were there all morning.

So this week it is me and my baseball bat.
Because I can't find my Member of Parliament Patrick Manning. There is sewage leaking on my street while he walks from Port of Spain making a pappyshow of himself. For months he sat in the parliament, DUMB, never opened his mouth and when he finally did he talked nonsense about the Prime Minister's $150 million and where she got the money to build it. Well no wonder he got suspended from the parliament. And his few supporters have the nerve to put tape on their mouths (in a protest) and carry placards saying "Give us back our voice".
In 40 years, Manning has never represented me. On the contrary I have been doing his work and that of every PNM councillor while his supporters have been acquiring CEPEP contracts and sitting on state boards.

Before the 2007 general elections his (and Junior Regrello's) thousands of San Fernando supporters passed on Coffee Street with cocoyea brooms (made from dried coconut palm leaves) chanting "It is sweeping time". Now that the PNM has been swept from power he could not muster 200 supporters to walk with him.
Well this is his opportunity to work for his constituents. I wish he would call up Ganga Singh and talk pipe.
Now does anyone remember what his comments were when (as Prime Minister) he returned from having heart surgery in Cuba? "The boy wukking. Ask Hazel" and he turns to his wife.
Well start wukking boy, start wukking.

The FIFA Family

The issues surrounding Jack Warner's name being called in the latest FIFA scandal have different meanings for different micro groups and for the massive group of football fans around the world.

Jack Warner was fingered in a sting initiated by the Secretary General of CONCACAF, the American Chuck Blazer. In this sting, no law enforcement officers were involved. The findings were intended to manipulate FIFA executives and influence the outcome of elections on June 1 in Zurich. At the time the prime contenders for the post of FIFA president were the incumbent, the aging but not yet doddery Sepp Blatter, and Mohammad Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation. Bin Hammam, under pressure from the Emir of Qatar stepped down so the 2022 World Cup (in Qatar) would not be placed in jeopardy.

The allegations that made the front page of newspapers around the world revolved around packets of cash being handed out to officials of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) on May 11 at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

For us in Trinidad and Tobago the concerns are linked to Warner's role in government where he wields substantial power having been a financier of the ruling party and where he now serves as Minister of Works and Transport. When the government was formed one year ago the main question was whether Warner should continue to serve on FIFA's Executive Committee. The government sought legal opinion. No consideration was given to FIFA's image, that the organisation uses its ability to attract lucrative sponsorships and generate huge profits as the answer to all its critics. No consideration was given to Warner's own ability to court controversy. It was only a matter of time before the problem blew up in our faces. "Innocent until proven guilty" is not the issue here, there are too many questions to be answered and Warner has been dodging those questions while he releases tidbits of information about Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke.

Warner's advice to CFU countries to support Blatter for the presidency may well earn him a slap on the wrist and, politican that he is, he will walk back into the fold (family) as if nothing has happened. The ensuing chaos in CONCACAF is a clear indicaton that for all the money and big salaries floating around, these guys are pitiful. The hirings and firings since Warner's suspension show clearly that this is just another ball game, the football going from one end of the field to the other... football at its worst.

Football in the region is also in a sorry state. We send teams to the World Cup based on group qualification, but how much have we developed? Our football is stagnant. We play out the preliminary round at the World Cup, maybe get two teams in the round of 16 and the story ends there. The scenario is predictable. Mexico and USA and some other third rate CONCACAF team. We work up a storm here in the region. We go to Germany or South Africa.... or Russia and Qatar....and we come back with drooping shoulders. Mexico...imagine Mexico... just another passenger in the World Cup. Our regional teams can not compare in any way to the European teams but Warner wants to campaign for a fourth qualifier from the region. That is not improvement in the sport. That is showbiz and benefits for services rendered.

The success of football in CONCACAF countries is measured by the size of the stadium (Bahamas which facilitated the sting operation) or where the FIFA Congress is held, and who is a bigger friend of Sepp Blatter, not by the quality of our players, the organisation of our teams and a visible move up the ladder of world football. The Football Federation in Trinidad and Tobago is always broke but the CONCACAF President can dish out money he has earned from football to subsidise the Federation.

A government minister hosts Bin Hammam and CFU officials, and his (son's) travel agency earns the single biggest chunk of the money spent by the Qatari. This is what people read in their newspapers. The issue is not what the legal opinion said one year ago. The issue must involve foresight and create situations that will minimise these scandals. When the Prime Minister accepted a legal opinion and agreed Jack could continue as a FIFA vice president she should have expected something like this. I am a casual observer and I knew something would crop up to embarass this country, so how did this bunch of the brightest people in the land not know.

Prime Minister Kamla should know what truth there was in the statement made by former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday that Jack owes the UNC $5 million US, implying it was a donation from a slush fund. Will we ever know if it is the same slush fund from which Blatter made the donations to CONCACAF members?

There is clearly more to be exposed in the coming months, but while we continue to close our eyes to the real issues, the problems will mount... and the legal opinions we use to defend our every foolish move will serve us no good.