Category: Features

Festivals contribute to the cultural tapestry of all countries. Each festival brings with it a unique blend of customs and traditions and acts as a harbinger of good-will, peace and fraternity. Centuries ago, Diwali was celebrated in the confines of the logies (primitive homes) in villages. Our forebears, the indentured immigrants strove to maintain their culture and religion with whatever limited facilities were available in those times. Diyas were lovingly crafted out of mud and the radiance given off from these little lights served as a beacon of hope to…

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By Pandit Dhanesh Prashad Deepavali or Diwali is the biggest and the brightest of all Hindu festivals. It is the festival of lights: deep means “light” and avali “a row” to become “a row of lights.” There are many stories surrounding the origin if Diwali. The most famous would be the one that commemorates the return of Lord Rama (along with Ma Sita and Lakshman) from his 14-year-long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the capital of…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat Accomplishment is a beautiful thing, but the road to that beautiful thing is one that is not paved and lined with daisies, rather it is one lined with bumps. However, when one reaches the pinnacle of accomplishment, the feeling is incomparable. For 28-year-old Candiacia Juliet Lewis, that day came on October 5, 2019 when she crossed the graduation stage at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. The journey to the mecca of law schools in the Caribbean has been a long one, a very long one…

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Born in a small town in a far-away country, Wilson Harris would go on to haunt the imagination of people around the world. He gifted us infinitesimal dots on enormous canvases of the mind by listening to trees – ‘Tell me trees, what are you whispering’ – and writing back to Guyana and communicating with the world, by smashing down ‘Fences upon the earth’ and opening the ‘womb of space’ into which our imagination entered. He takes the reader to the precipice and dangles answers for the discerning; hard work…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat Cancer is a word no one wants to hear from their doctor. For many, the word itself is strong enough to drive fear in the strongest of people. So when Andrea Tucker’s doctor informed her that she had the dreaded “C-word” all she could have done was look to the heavens and place her faith in God. “I knew something was going to happen before I got my results. I was kinda expecting them to say cancer, but another part of me was doubtful because they would…

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The Breast Cancer Awareness Month, marked in countries across the world every October, helps to increase attention and support for the awareness, early detection and treatment as well as palliative care of this disease. There are about 1.38 million new cases and 458 000 deaths from breast cancer each year (IARC Globocan, 2008). Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide, both in the developed and developing countries. In low- and middle-income countries the incidence has been rising up steadily in the last years due to…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat One of the most beautiful and equally scariest things about life is its unpredictability. The unpredictability of life is such that we never know what is coming next so it behoves us to not get too comfortable. It behoves us to not take things for granted, so we can be ready for every curveball that unpredictability brings. Despite being told to be prepared always, Zalina Singh never thought that she would have been hearing the word “cancer” associated with her name in her lifetime. It all started…

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By Mohanlall Suelall Nikos Kazantzakis had said, “True teachers use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.” Bearing that in mind, Rabeena Rajkumar joined the teaching profession over 20 years ago and to date she still goes to work every day feeling as though it is the first. For her, teaching gives her fulfilment and knowing that she is impacting the lives of the future generations of groundbreakers makes her the…

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By Utama Bell The Nursery level is believed to be the ‘foundation level’, which sets the pace for student learning and future academic achievements. This is the main reason why Nursery school teacher Kim Fung takes her job so seriously. Miss Fung, of Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice) has been in the teaching profession for almost 10 years and is presently attached to the South Amelia’s Ward Nursery School. She attended the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and is currently a final year student at the University of…

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World Poetry Day was originally celebrated on the third Saturday in October and then October 15 was earmarked as it coincided with birthday of Virgil, the Roman epic poet and poet laureate under Augustus. However, in 1999 UNECSO declared March 21 as World Poetry Day, a day which is now also used in Guyana. Would that World Poetry Day had remained in October for my database shows that there are more than ten Guyanese poetry writers born during this month. It is useful to know that this article is another…

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