Senior Reporter
geisha.kowlessar@guardian.co.tt
In his first book, which he dedicated to his parents, journalist Ryan Bachoo tells the poignant story of Tar, a teenager working in the cane fields alongside wise and influential Uncle Sundar as radio opens their ears to global events through the BBC World Service.
As Uncle Sundar instils in Tar the determination to escape the grip of poverty and systemic racism, the novel takes readers on a powerful journey of hope, ambition, and identity, with Tar setting his sights on New York or London.
Through Tar’s eyes, Bachoo masterfully confronts issues of racism, classism and societal divides, painting a vivid picture of life and struggles in 1970s Trinidad while exploring the universal themes of growth and self-discovery.
At the launch at Hayes Court in Port-of-Spain on Saturday, Bachoo detailed the genesis of his book, revealing that it came “purely out of his love for literature” and was inspired by the works of celebrated Caribbean authors like VS Naipaul and Samuel Selvon.
“In their books, I saw in my village those very characters and all of us from the Caribbean . . . all our islands have that similarity. Characters you can put in a book or characters you can put in a play,” he said.
“I saw a story in my own town, my own village. I saw a story in my own people and I said to myself sometime around 2007/2008, ‘Dammit this place would be wasted. My life would be wasted if I didn’t put this into a book because such rich content must go into a book.”
He set about writing his novel in 2009 “not really knowing how it would end or how long it would take.”
It took Bachoo five years to complete the first draft as the journey was not without challenges.
“When the first draft was done in 2014 I called a copy editor who said to me, “Okay, that would be $10,000 to copy edit it.’ I was just a freelancer at CNC3 struggling to get from Princes Town to Port-of-Spain every day on the salary I was working for,” Bachoo said.
He put the book down for nine years due to that cost and also wondered whether his work was “good enough.” However, things took a turn in 2023.
“This book came back to me in the form of a Microsoft Word document that I had saved on my laptop. I said, ‘Let me at least get an editor to at least hear what they had to say.’ I was prepared for the worst,” Bachoo said.
However, his hard work and dedication, along with the invaluable advice given to him along the way by various mentors paid off.
In between the first and second drafts, there were fundamental changes in his writing style, as well as personal growth and how he viewed his life and family.
“This was the way I made not only myself but also my parents immortal. Books, good books, live on for generations and this is my contribution in the hope that when I move on and when my parents move on this book can still be on shelves in a way that makes not only myself but my parents immortal,” Bachoo said.
