Shas­tri Boodan

The caus­es of fam­i­ly break­down are mul­ti­fac­to­r­i­al and re­quire a re­set­ting of the norms with­in so­ci­ety and a na­tion­al fo­cus on re­spect for women and the fam­i­ly.

This was the view ex­pressed by Prof Dilip Dan in his fea­ture ad­dress at the open­ing of Di­vali Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas on Tues­day.

Speak­ing on the theme for the Na­gar, Gri­hastha Ashram (Build­ing Homes and Fam­i­lies), Prof Dan, pres­i­dent of the So­ci­ety of Sur­geons, said the trou­bles fac­ing so­ci­ety would not ex­ist if peo­ple fol­lowed the teach­ing of re­li­gious scrip­tures.

“Our scrip­tures hold women in the high­est es­teem. Do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, phys­i­cal or ver­bal, is not tol­er­a­ble. Sev­er­al ex­cerpts from our scrip­tures dis­play this,” he said, adding some pub­lic fig­ures are al­so play­ing a role in the ero­sion of val­ues through dis­grace­ful be­hav­iour.

“When we see the rep­re­hen­si­ble be­hav­iour of our pub­lic fig­ures and lead­ers and the lan­guage they use with vul­gar tones, what is to be ex­pect­ed for the rest of us and our chil­dren?’ he asked.

“The ma­jor­i­ty say if they can do it, so can we, hence the lev­el of volatil­i­ty amongst house­hold­ers, dri­vers and even our stu­dents, lead­ing to gang fight­ing and bul­ly­ing.”

He said what is pass­ing for cul­ture in some cir­cles leads to al­co­hol abuse.

“It is fair­ly com­mon knowl­edge that we have a prob­lem with al­co­hol dat­ing back to the days our an­ces­tors worked in the cane fields and would have a drink in the evening to re­lax from a hard day’s work. We all know Sun­dar Popo’s song, Nana and Nani, which tells a very com­i­cal sto­ry about Nana drink­ing white rum and Nani drink­ing wine,” he said.

“What we see to­day pass­ing as mu­sic and song is a hor­ri­ble de­te­ri­o­ra­tion in lyrics and un­for­tu­nate­ly these sell like hot bread. We have enough trou­ble with Trini­bad mu­sic and some very lewd and sug­ges­tive kaisos but our very own chut­ney leaves a lot to be de­sired ... rum till I die, rum kill meh fa­ther, rum kill meh moth­er and you know the rest of the sto­ry.”

Prof Dan said those songs send sub­lim­i­nal mes­sages that it’s okay to drink and abuse oth­ers.

NCIC pres­i­dent, Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, said Di­vali Na­gar con­tin­ues to be an in­te­gral part of the cul­tur­al land­scape in T&T and has played a piv­otal role in the ac­cep­tance of Di­vali as a na­tion­al fes­ti­val. He said the Na­gar of­fers cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors a ready av­enue to par­tic­i­pate in the fes­ti­val of lights.