Many of us are between 65 and death, i.e. old. My friend sent me this excellent list for aging . . . and I have to agree it's good advice to follow. The guy who sent this hi-lighted #19.
1. It’s time to use the money you saved up. Use it and enjoy it. Don’t just keep it for those who may have no notion of the sacrifices you made to get it. Remember there is nothing more dangerous than a son or daughter-in-law with big ideas for your hard-earned capital. Warning: This is also a bad time for investments, even if it seems wonderful or fool-proof. They only bring problems and worries. This is a time for you to enjoy some peace and quiet.
2. Stop worrying about the financial situation of your children and grandchildren, and don’t feel bad spending your money on yourself. You’ve taken care of them for many years, and you’ve taught them what you could. You gave them an education, food, shelter and support. The responsibility is now theirs to earn their own money.
3. Keep a healthy life, without great physical effort. Do moderate exercise (like walking every day), eat well and get your sleep. It’s easy to become sick, and it gets harder to remain healthy. That is why you need to keep yourself in good shape and be aware of your medical and physical needs. Keep in touch with your doctor, do tests even when you’re feeling well. Stay informed.
4. Always buy the best, most beautiful items for your significant other. The key goal is to enjoy your money with your partner. One day one of you will miss the other, and the money will not provide any comfort then, enjoy it together
5. Don’t stress over the little things. Like paying a little extra on price quotes. You’ve already overcome so much in your life.You have good memories and bad ones, but the important thing is the present. Don’t let the past drag you down and don’t let the future frighten you. Feel good in the now. Small issues will soon be forgotten.
6. Regardless of age, always keep love alive. Love your partner, love life, love your family, love your neighbor and remember: “A man is not old as long as he has intelligence and affection.”
7. Be proud, both inside and out. Don’t stop going to your hair salon or barber, do your nails, go to the dermatologist and the dentist, keep your perfumes and creams well stocked. When you are well-maintained on the outside, it seeps in, making you feel proud and strong.
8. Don’t lose sight of fashion trends for your age, but keep your own sense of style. There’s nothing worse than an older person trying to wear the current fashion among youngsters. You’ve developed your own sense of what looks good on you – keep it and be proud of it. It’s part of who you are.
9. ALWAYS stay up-to-date. Read newspapers, watch the news. Go online and read what people are saying. Make sure you have an active email account and try to use some of those social networks. You’ll be surprised what old friends you’ll meet. Keeping in touch with what is going on and with the people you know is important at any age.
10. Respect the younger generation and their opinions. They may not have the same ideals as you, but they are the future, and will take the world in their direction. Give advice, not criticism, and try to remind them that yesterday’s wisdom still applies today.
11. Never use the phrase: “In my time.” Your time is now. As long as you’re alive, you are part of this time. You may have been younger, but you are still you now, having fun and enjoying life.
12. Some people embrace their golden years, while others become bitter and surly. Life is too short to waste your days on the latter. Spend your time with positive, cheerful people, it’ll rub off on you and your days will seem that much better. Spending your time with bitter people will make you older and harder to be around.
13. Do not surrender to the temptation of living with your children or grandchildren (if you have a financial choice, that is). Sure, being surrounded by family sounds great, but we all need our privacy. They need theirs and you need yours. If you’ve lost your partner (our deepest condolences), then find a person to move in with you and help out. Even then, do so only if you feel you really need the help or do not want to live alone.
14. Don’t abandon your hobbies. If you don’t have any, make new ones. You can travel, hike, cook, read, dance. You can adopt a cat or a dog, grow a garden, play cards, checkers, chess, dominoes, golf. You can paint, volunteer or just collect certain items. Find something you like and spend some real time having fun with it.
15. Even if you don’t feel like it, try to accept invitations. Baptisms, graduations, birthdays, weddings, conferences. Try to go. Get out of the house, meet people you haven’t seen in a while, experience something new (or something old). But don’t get upset when you’re not invited. Some events are limited by resources, and not everyone can be hosted. The important thing is to leave the house from time to time. Go to museums, go walk through a field. Get out there.
16. Be a conversationalist. Talk less and listen more. Some people go on and on about the past, not caring if their listeners are really interested. That’s a great way of reducing their desire to speak with you. Listen first and answer questions, but don’t go off into long stories unless asked to. Speak in courteous tones and try not to complain or criticize too much unless you really need to. Try to accept situations as they are. Everyone is going through the same things, and people have a low tolerance for hearing complaints. Always find some good things to say as well.
17. Pain and discomfort go hand in hand with getting older. Try not to dwell on them but accept them as a part of the cycle of life we’re all going through. Try to minimize them in your mind. They are not who you are, they are something that life added to you. If they become your entire focus, you lose sight of the person you used to be.
18. If you’ve been offended by someone – forgive them. If you’ve offended someone - apologize. Don’t drag around resentment with you. It only serves to make you sad and bitter. It doesn’t matter who was right. Someone once said: “Holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Don’t take that poison. Forgive, forget and move on with your life.
19. If you have a strong belief, savor it. But don’t waste your time trying to convince others. They will make their own choices no matter what you tell them, and it will only bring you frustration. Live your faith and set an example. Live true to your beliefs and let that memory sway them.
20. Laugh. Laugh A LOT. Laugh at everything. Remember, you are one of the lucky ones. You managed to have a life, a long one. Many never get to this age, never get to experience a full life. But you did. So what’s not to laugh about? Find the humor in your situation.
21. Take no notice of what others say about you and even less notice of what they might be thinking. They’ll do it anyway, and you should have pride in yourself and what you’ve achieved. Let them talk and don’t worry. They have no idea about your history, your memories and the life you’ve lived so far. There’s still much to be written, so get busy writing and don’t waste time thinking about what others might think. Now is the time to be at rest, at peace and as happy as you can be!
REMEMBER: “Life is too short to drink bad wine and warm beer.”

The BBC has named Sir VS Naipaul’s ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ as one of 100 novels that helped shape the world.
In an article published November 5, 2019, the BBC said the list was selected by a panel of leading writers, curators, and critics to select novels which had an impact on their lives.
The panel consists of Radio 4 Front Row presenter and Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, authors Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal and Alexander McCall Smith, and Bradford Festival Literary Director Syima Aslam.
‘A House for Mr Biswas’, viewed by some as Naipaul’s first work to achieve critical acclaim worldwide, was written in 1961 and tells the story of Mohun Biswas' life-long goal to have a home of his own.
Drawing some elements from the life of Naipaul's father, the work is a sharply drawn look at life that uses postcolonial perspectives to view a vanished colonial world.
Despite hardship, Biswas becomes a journalist and his son Anand is able to secure a scholarship to England.
The novel is set in the iconic Lion House, the ancestral home of the Capildeo family. The Lion House has been recommended as a Heritage Site and is located in Chaguanas.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked A House for Mr Biswas number 72 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century and Time magazine included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005".
Born in 1932, Sir Naipaul attended Queen’s Royal College and went on to win an Open National Scholarship to University College, Oxford.
In 1990 he was knighted by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and in 1992 he was awarded the Trinity Cross for services to the nation.
In 2001 Sir Naipaul was awarded the Nobel prize for literature.

Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha and a man who carved out a legacy for himself as a fighter, Satnarayan Maharaj, 88, has died.
He died at 12.01 am Saturday, November 16, eight days after he suffered a stroke.
Maharaj had been warded at Medical Associates in St Joseph in critical condition and yesterday his son Vijay Maharaj announced that he had been taken off support systems.
The following is an article from the Trinidad Guardian, November 20, 2019 
SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI
shal­iza.has­[email protected]
Few peo­ple knew the soft­er side of Sat Ma­haraj and many brand­ed him as con­tro­ver­sial not know­ing that be­hind his acidic tongue, Ma­haraj had a heart that could have melt­ed stone.
Such were the trib­utes at his fu­ner­al ser­vice at the SDMS head­quar­ters, St Au­gus­tine, yes­ter­day.
Prin­ci­pal of Lak­sh­mi Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege So­nia Ma­hase and pres­i­dent of the SDMS Pri­ma­ry School Prin­ci­pals As­so­ci­a­tion Shar­main Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj, who both paid trib­ute to Ma­haraj, fought hard to con­tain their emo­tions yes­ter­day as they re­called the in­te­gral role the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the SDMS played in build­ing a strong ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem for its 43 pri­ma­ry and five sec­ondary schools in T&T.
The court­yard of the SDMS was filled with hun­dreds of mourn­ers who braved the rains to pay their last re­spect.
Re­flect­ing on Ma­haraj’s life, Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said he made land­mark vic­to­ries at the Privy Coun­cil.
Ma­haraj’s great­est achieve­ment she said was his ad­vance­ment in ed­u­ca­tion.
“He trans­formed our SDMS schools, which were first called and la­belled as cow­sheds, in­to pres­ti­gious learn­ing in­sti­tu­tions.”
Un­der Ma­haraj’s guid­ance, Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said these schools to­day stand as bea­cons in com­mu­ni­ties.
“He was adamant that no child in an SDMS school should be left be­hind.”
Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said those who “fell short” would feel Ma­haraj’s fiery out­burst be­hind closed doors.
She said Ma­haraj al­so had “a warm and gra­cious side that few were aware of and ex­pe­ri­enced.”
Try­ing hard to con­tain her tears, Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said Ma­haraj was a “lov­ing, car­ing fa­ther fig­ure, a men­tor, guide and con­fi­dant whose shoes will be hard to fill.”
Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said prin­ci­pals and SDMS self­ish­ly prayed for Ma­haraj to live to 100 but they all knew he was here on bor­rowed time.
“You have fear­less­ly fought and won your bat­tles, go and rest now with your wife Shan­ti,” Bha­ga­loo- Ma­haraj said, her voice crack­ing as she spoke.
Ma­hase spoke about Ma­haraj at­tend­ing the school’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny on No­vem­ber 7.
“At one point he turned and said to me, when we win our fifth con­sec­u­tive Pres­i­dent’s Gold Medal he was go­ing to ap­ply for a hol­i­day for all SDMS’ pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools to cel­e­brate.”
Ma­haraj, how­ev­er, did not live to see this hap­pen.
Stand­ing be­hind Ma­hase was the school’s 2019 Pres­i­dent’s Medal win­ner Ce­line Roodal, who was ap­plaud­ed for her achieve­ments. The school won 40 schol­ar­ships.
She said Ma­haraj would have been proud of the schol­ar­ships achieved at the Vish­nu Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege and Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege.
“He has en­sured that all his sec­ondary schools have been placed on a tra­jec­to­ry of suc­cess.”
Ma­hase said Ma­haraj was un­com­pro­mis­ing, pas­sion­ate and at times a hard taskmas­ter.
Apart from be­ing their pil­lar of strength, Ma­haraj was their men­tor and vi­sion­ary.
“He be­came our gu­ru, our touch­stone and con­fi­dant,” Ma­hase said, try­ing hard to fight her tears.
Ma­hase said Ma­haraj en­sured that the ed­u­ca­tion of fe­males re­main a pri­or­i­ty while he stood proud of the strides made by fe­male stu­dents in the CSEC and CAPE ex­am­i­na­tions.
Pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the SDMS Pun­dit Kr­ish­na Ram­bal­ly said the last thing Ma­haraj fought against was the sedi­tion law.
“He dis­charged his re­spon­si­bil­i­ty with fi­nesse and tact. He was not one to be eas­i­ly dis­cour­aged. His lega­cy stands as tall and strong as he did. We have lost a great leader.”
Those who knew Ma­haraj could at­test that he was a lov­ing in­di­vid­ual.
Ram­bal­ly as­sured that the work of the SDMS will con­tin­ue in keep­ing with Ma­haraj’s vi­sion.

Trinida­di­an born po­et and au­thor, Ian Williams has won Cana­da's rich­est lit­er­ary award for fic­tion, for his nov­el Re­pro­duc­tion.
Williams was named as the 2019 Sco­tia­bank Giller Prize, in a cer­e­mo­ny on Mon­day night, beat­ing out five oth­er au­thors for the prize.
The first time nov­el­ist, who is an as­sis­tant pro­fes­sor of po­et­ry in the Cre­ative Writ­ing pro­gramme at the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Co­lum­bia, said he was shocked to earn the prize.
"It's a to­tal sur­prise, I mean there's no prepar­ing for it. Even in your wildest fan­ta­sy like you imag­ine it and there's noth­ing like it. Maybe it's what pro ath­letes feel like or when ten­nis play­ers win Wim­ble­don or the US Open. Like we don't write books for this mo­ment and then it hap­pens and you're to­tal­ly off guard as a hu­man," he told the Cana­di­an Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion.
He said the win made him re­flect on his past, in­clud­ing his time be­ing raised in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­fore his fam­i­ly mi­grat­ed to Cana­da.
"In­cred­i­bly spe­cial and all of your his­to­ry just kind of rush­es back to you. I imag­ine my­self as a boy in Bramp­ton, I imag­ined my­self as a boy in Trinidad," said the 40-year-old.
Williams's nov­el Re­pro­duc­tion presents the sto­ry of Fe­li­cia and her teenage son Army af­ter their move in­to a base­ment apart­ment. There they formed a bond with the house's own­er and his two chil­dren which be­comes com­pli­cat­ed when strange gifts from Army's wealthy, ab­sent fa­ther start to be de­liv­ered to their new home.
"There's a lot of his­to­ry that goes in­to stand­ing right here. I think we all come from fam­i­lies, right and the fam­i­lies are not per­fect, they're not messy and we've been nov­el­ists fas­ci­nat­ed by how fam­i­lies are formed and how fam­i­lies are de­stroyed and how fam­i­lies are re­formed and it's all love that keeps peo­ple to­geth­er. It's all love that keeps us say­ing well I'm go­ing to try an­oth­er fam­i­ly and I'm go­ing try af­ter to find some­one to love me like it's like that per­sis­tence of that uni­ver­sal. It doesn't mat­ter cul­ture it doesn't mat­ter the na­tion­al­i­ty," said Williams, who al­so stressed the im­por­tance of writ­ers in the mod­ern era.
"By writ­ing fic­tion, we leave be­hind a record of what it's like to be alive in 2019. One hun­dred years from now, we can look at the news re­ports and then we can read the writ­ers and re­al­ize every­thing was more com­pli­cat­ed than the news sug­gest­ed," he said.
Source: CNC3 November 20, 2019

March of the Mokos tells the story of Glen “Dragon” De Souza – one of TT’s unsung heroes – who revived the moko jumbie after a severe decline in the 1970s.
Produced by the Carnival Institute of TT, the 24-minute documentary examines the moko jumbie from its suspected beginning in the Moko tribe of West Africa to its spread to other parts of the world.
It contains footage of moko mas and stilt walking, interviews with De Souza and some of the people he inspired, and of De Souza’s interactions with his students. It also featured the spiritual elements of the moko mas, how De Souza affected the lives of youths, and the joy of foreigners when they learn to stilt-walk.
The high quality of the production and hard work of the institute’s staff were rewarded on September 20, when March of the Mokos was awarded the Caribbean Spirit prize at the 2019 Caribbean Tales Film Festival in Toronto. 
Dr Kim Johnson, director of the Carnival Institute, explained how the idea for the documentary came about. He said the institute often hosted students from American universities doing Caribbean studies and they are often taken to De Souza to experience stilt-walking. In 2017, the staff of the institute decided to make a five-minute video to introduce students to moko jumbies before they were taken to Dragon. The video came out so well that they decided to expand it into a short film for the 2018 TT Film Festival.
Johnson said De Souza started a moko jumbie camp, the Keylemanjahro School of Arts and Culture, for at-risk youths in Cocorite in 1985. Because of his work – personally and through his students – the moko jumbie spread all over Trinidad, so it was no longer something just for Carnival. People did stilt-walking for fun, and moko jumbies began appearing at weddings, Independence Day celebrations and more. Moko jumbies have been displayed at the British Museum, appeared at the Wall Street Intervention in New York in 2011, and were even featured on Sesame Street.
“It has been extremely successful. Now we have had Kings and Queens of Carnival being moko jumbies. What’s equally amazing is that moko jumbies spread to the US, spread to Europe because of him. People from all over come and learn at his camp...So it all started, directly or indirectly, from Dragon.”
For example, he said Jhawhan Thomas, Peter Minshall’s 2016 Carnival king who portrayed The Dying Swan: Ras Nijinsky in Drag, was a student of Dragon.
In addition to the TT Film Festival and Caribbean Tales, March of the Mokos was screened earlier this year at CaribbeanLens International Film and Art Festival in Hollywood. The point, said Johnson, was to share it with as many people as possible.
“I wanted to get it in Caribbean Tales because a big Caribbean community attends that festival. So we submitted Mokos, I paid for it, they accepted it, they screened it, and we won.”
He said a lot of work went into the film as the makers paid great attention to detail, especially in the editing and soundtrack, which helped to tell the story in a way that would make it interesting and even exciting to others. He believed they succeeded, as the film was sold to a TV station in New Zealand even before it won the Caribbean Spirit prize.
He said when Moko won, there was a small celebration at the institute’s offices in Belmont.
“It is important because we tend to be ignored. We have problems getting equipment, getting money to operate, so the acknowledgement that we produce high-quality products is an important feather in our cap so that we can begin to have a bigger impact.”
Johnson stressed that the mandate of the institute is to collect information and artefacts, archive them, and disseminate knowledge on TT Carnival and its culture. Students go to the institute for information, its staff give lectures, and it hosts exhibitions.
“Because we are kind of understaffed, I thought the best way to educate people is through film. You show a film and 1,000 people could see it. If you give a lecture, it’s 25 people. And young people, they are into film. They’re not going to a lecture or reading any book. So when I came here four years ago I shifted the focus to film.”
These films are shown in schools and film festivals, and universities often request copies for educational purposes. Johnson said the institute also assists people in making films and because it promotes TT, it ensures the productions are very high quality.
The institute recently started working on a series on the history of Carnival, including steelpan, mas, and calypso/soca. He said it also developed a proposal for a Carnival museum which they were invited to design at Fort San Andres, South Quay, Port of Spain by the Ministry of Culture. In the interim, however, the institute hopes to create one at the “penny bank” on Duke Street which was donated by First Citizens.
Source: Newsday, Oct 6, 2019

A Tri­ni-born sur­geon prac­tis­ing in Eng­land is be­ing hailed as a hero by many for suc­cess­ful­ly re­con­struct­ing the jaw of a 15-year-old girl fol­low­ing a horse-rid­ing ac­ci­dent.
Con­sul­tant Oral & Max­illo­fa­cial sur­geon based at Sheffield Teach­ing Hos­pi­tals and an Hon­orary Se­nior Clin­i­cal Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Sheffield, Ri­car­do Mo­hammed-Ali, suc­cess­ful­ly re­con­struct­ed the jaw of Emi­ly Ec­cles when it broke in half in Au­gust.
Speak­ing on the show “BBC Break­fast” on Fri­day, Ec­cles ex­plained that her jaw was at­tached to her body on­ly by a bit of skin and the hel­met she was wear­ing at the time.
Ec­cles’ in­jury was de­scribed by doc­tors as the worst they’ve seen out­side of a war­zone.
Al­so ap­pear­ing on the show was Mr Mo­hammed-Ali who ex­plained: “I got a call from one of my ju­niors, which was a bit odd that said we’ve got a pa­tient that is com­ing in and their jaw has been sep­a­rat­ed from their face.”
“It’s not of­ten you get a call like that. You get a frac­tured mandible, or a frac­tured cheek­bone, up­per jaw, low­er jaw,” he said

Elab­o­rat­ing on the ex­tent of Ec­cles’ con­di­tion in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, he said time was of the essence to the suc­cess of the surgery. “The jaw was split in two and the left side was com­plete­ly sep­a­rat­ed from the face. The low­er part of the face was de­tached from the rest of the face ex­cept for a strip of skin on the right side. The nerves that move the lip and pro­vides feel­ing were sev­ered. I had to re­con­struct bone, mus­cles, nerves and re­store blood sup­ply. If not the low­er part of the face would have not sur­vived. The surgery was time crit­i­cal to en­sure sur­vival of the tis­sues. We ba­si­cal­ly re-im­plant­ed the low­er face.”
Eight weeks lat­er Ec­cles is able to speak, how­ev­er, she ad­mit­ted on the BBC show that she can’t feel the bot­tom lip prop­er­ly as “it’s like pins and nee­dles be­cause of the nerves be­ing dam­aged and ripped out but oth­er than that, it’s be­come nor­mal now.”
Her re­cov­ery, Mo­hammed-Ali said, was re­mark­able. “On the third of Oc­to­ber it was two months and the swelling has gone down, the jaw is func­tion­ing, she is back to eat­ing and drink­ing as nor­mal.”
With such a re­mark­able re­cov­ery, many have hailed Mr Mo­hammed-Ali a hero, dub­bing his work as a mir­a­cle.
Asked by Guardian Me­dia if he felt like a hero, he said: “I am just do­ing my job and priv­i­leged that I am able to re­con­struct faces and treat pa­tients with fa­cial de­for­mi­ties.”
​Mr Mo­hammed-Ali was born in Trinidad and left for Eng­land af­ter stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI). He has been re­sid­ing in the UK for the past 16 years.

It was late in April of 1979, when a poor, lone­ly and sad­dened man sat in his lit­tle, wood­en gallery in St Croix Road, Princes Town. Al­most in tears and fail­ing sight, he re­called the 45-year pi­o­neer­ing strug­gle in the mak­ing and per­fect­ing of the dou­bles, a na­tion­al food. He was known as Singh, the dou­bles man, one of the sev­er­al pi­o­neers in Princes Town.
Singh grew up in a lit­tle bar­rack room in Trans­port, Princes Town. He be­came ac­quaint­ed with Chote, Dean and As­ga Ali of Fair­field Sug­ar Cane Es­tate in Craig­nish, who were al­so pi­o­neer mak­ers and ven­dors of bar­ra and chut­ney, kur­ma, pholourie, chan­na and oth­er In­di­an del­i­ca­cies. Chote re­lat­ed how he ac­quired his art from his in­den­tured grand­fa­ther in the bar­rack at the Mal­gretoute Cane Es­tate.
Singh agreed that he learned a few things about mak­ing and sell­ing some of those del­i­ca­cies from his as­so­ciates. As a young man, he de­cid­ed to go in­to busi­ness, and so, he filled his bas­ket and set up at the Princes Town Tri­an­gle to of­fer his del­i­ca­cies. Hope­ful­ly, and in good spir­its, he shout­ed, "Get yuh bar­rah and chut­ney! Chan­nah! Chan­nah! Chan­nah! Wet (cur­ried) chan­nah o’ dry (fried) chan­nah!"
As he con­tin­ued his sell­ing at the Tri­an­gle one day, an aged woman named Doo Doo Dar­lin tast­ed his bar­ra and chut­ney. She sucked her teeth in pity and shak­ing her head, "No!" she told Singh,"Yuh cyah mek bar­rah yet mih son. De edge ah de bar­rah too hard. Dorg self cyah eat dat." The fol­low­ing day, the woman went to Singh’s bar­rack, and with great care, she taught him the cor­rect method of mak­ing what she con­sid­ered to be good orig­i­nal bar­ra. From then, there was no turn­ing back for Singh. When the roost­er crew at four o’clock, dawn, Singh and his wife, Sookya, were up and prepar­ing the del­i­ca­cies for the day’s sale. Af­ter much labour and sac­ri­fice, Singh and Sookya had saved enough mon­ey to pur­chase a freight bi­cy­cle. It was then that he was able to move with much ease and to of­fer his ed­i­bles to a wider mar­ket
He had the grit and de­ter­mi­na­tion to sell and so, he fo­cused on be­ing an it­er­ant bar­ra man. He jour­neyed to neigh­bour­ing vil­lages on spe­cial func­tions and fes­ti­vals. He cy­cled to Cedar Hill dai­ly dur­ing the Ram­leela Fes­ti­val, to near­by Craig­nish dur­ing Hosay (Ho­sein) cel­e­bra­tion. He jour­neyed many miles to Bar­rack­pore, Debe and Pe­nal dur­ing the Phag­wa fes­ti­vals, al­so at Union Park in Mara­bel­la dur­ing the grand East­er horse rac­ing events. The tire­less bar­ra man Singh sold his prod­ucts to vil­lagers at the Willians­ville Rail­way Sta­tion, when horse-drawn bug­gies plied for hire to White­lands, Mayo and Guaracara vil­lages.
Comb­ing his fin­gers though his short, grey hair, a smile played on his lips. Singh, with a mea­sure of laugh in his voice, re­called, "Boy, some­time dur­ing the World war 11 in 1940, dey had big cock fight in Re­be­ca-Rich­mond Road, near Tabaquite down so. Ah pack up mih bike wid cur­ry chan­nah, bar­rah and hot man­go chut­ney and Ah ride off soon morn­ing un­til ah reach. Boy dat was pres­sure. Well, ah push dong mih bike trough de bush track right dong to de gayelle. Boy dat was cock fight foh so! All kin­da bigshot man in de bam­boo patch and dey game-cock fight­in’ an’ mon­ey on­ly fly­in’ as dey drinkin’ moun­tain dew like wa­ter. Well, ah sell­in’ mih stuff good, good, when ah man bawl out, 'Po­lice! Po­lice!' Boy! Man run­nin’ like ‘gouti through de bush. I run an hide in de bush too. A! A! When ah come back to mih bike all mih bar­rah an’ chut­ney gorn. Mih chan­nah tin emp­ty! Like dorg lick it!" At that point his voice dipped in­to a sob­bing tremor, his eyes turned moi­sed as he looked down to the floor. He choked, "On­ly Gawd know how..."
From that ex­cit­ing day, Singh dis­con­tin­ued his sales trip to cock fight­ing gayelles and whey whey turfs. He set­tled back to the Princes Town Tri­an­gle, and some­times at the Fair­field Junc­tion in Craig­nish, along­side Chote and Dean.
As the World War con­tin­ued, the bar­ra busi­ness suf­fered from short­ages of re­lat­ed in­gre­di­ents in­clud­ing flour and cook­ing oil. Singh heard of a Chi­nese shop­keep­er in Ma­yaro, who had a hoard of cook­ing oil. Ear­ly one morn­ing, he rode off on his freight bi­cy­cle to that des­ti­na­tion, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 36 miles plus, to the Chi­nese shop, where he bought a four-gal­lon tin of the cook­ing oil, and rode back to his bar­rack in Princes Town. Many times af­ter, he trav­elled by the TGR (Trinidad Gov­ern­ment Rail­ways) bus to ob­tain his sup­ply.
When the war end­ed in 1945, Singh sighed in re­lief, and with re­newed hope and de­ter­mi­na­tion, he sought new mar­ket­ing out­lets in the Bor­ough of San Fer­nan­do sev­en miles away. He stag­gered his vend­ing from the Na­pari­ma Boys' Col­lege on Par­adise Hill to St Bene­dict’s Col­lege, now known as Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege on Cof­fee Street. At al­ter­nate times, he sold at the mar­ket and on the King’s Wharf.
In those far-off days, he ex­plained that the bar­ra was sold with a daub of pep­pery chut­ney. The cur­ried chan­na—some­times called wet or soft chan­na—was sep­a­rate­ly sold. One day, while sell­ing near a well-known au­to garage on the wharf, a reg­u­lar work­er from the garage came to buy. He or­dered that Singh put a spread of the cur­ried chan­na on the bar­ra. So pleased was the cus­tomer with the com­bi­na­tion, that the fol­low­ing day, he or­dered, " 'Singh, boy, put some cur­ried chan­na on ah bar­ra and cov­er it wid an­od­der bar­ra to make like ah sand­wich.' " Singh said, "Oho! So,yuh want it dou­ble!" The sat­is­fied cus­tomer re­turned to or­der, "Aye! Singh, dat 'dou­ble' eatin’ good boy! bring ah ‘dou­ble’ dey foh mih, an put de pep­per chut­ney too." Sub­se­quent to those days, when­ev­er the man came to buy, Singh would ask, "So yuh come foh an­od­der dou­ble?" Oth­er cus­tomers ob­served, tast­ed, and were de­light­ed and sat­is­fied at the unique com­bi­na­tion. Voic­es were call­ing for more, "Can I have two dou­bles please?" And the or­ders went around; it was the ori­gin of the name 'dou­bles.'
Al­though the ba­sic art of mak­ing the del­i­ca­cies was hand­ed down from our in­den­tured fore-par­ents from In­dia, it is known that cer­tain changes were made as of ne­ces­si­ty or as a cre­ative ad­just­ment to­ward a bet­ter flavour.
The com­po­si­tion of the in­gre­di­ents was al­tered, mak­ing it an in­dige­nous food form.
Ms As­gar Ali, Chote, Dean and Singh re­main the pi­o­neers of the dou­bles. Those men and their de­vot­ed wives had sac­ri­ficed and con­tributed to a na­tion­al fast food; those who had cleared the way to­ward self-em­ploy­ment of all dou­bles ven­dors; those who had giv­en us a sim­ple meal, which is af­ford­able and nu­tri­tious. The fa­mous Ali Dou­bles chain emerged from those in­den­tured roots, as well as all dou­bles ven­dors across our is­land and To­ba­go.
It is re­gret­table that those men and their de­vot­ed wives were not recog­nised and ap­plaud­ed for their laud­able con­tri­bu­tion to the culi­nary art. Princes Town, the birth and home of the mighty dou­bles, that old freight bi­cy­cle with the dou­bles box should be the sym­bol and a tan­gi­ble his­toric item to be pre­served and dis­played on a pedestal with the names of the pi­o­neers etched in a plaque with a brief his­to­ry. The peo­ple of Princes Town must keep their his­to­ry and cul­tur­al her­itage alive; you are a part of a no­ble town with a rich and en­dur­ing his­to­ry—cel­e­brate the pi­o­neers, your her­itage, your his­to­ry—The home of the dou­bles.
Source: Al Ramsawack, Trinidad Guardian, October 2019