With Divali just days away, Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) celebrated the Festival of Lights with a special observance showcasing the nation’s cultural diversity.
Speaking at the event at its Head Office in Piarco on Tuesday evening, Director of the Board of Governors Professor Selwyn Cudjoe, ORTT, revealed that the airline was celebrating Divali for the first time in its 20-year history, making the occasion a milestone for the carrier.
“It’s a pleasure to share this special occasion with you, it being the first occasion in which Caribbean Airlines has ever celebrated this function and which, incidentally, coincides with the 20th anniversary of the airline. So in a way it’s a double celebration this evening.”
Professor Cudjoe called on the management and staff of the airline to emulate the virtues of the Ramayana.
“In her Divali greetings in Penal on Saturday, our leader and Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, declared that righteousness, that is, the quality of being morally right, the just and virtuous, inhered in the celebration of Divali in that it demands ‘the courage to stand up for what we believe is right and that our actions conform to the highest moral and divine standards’. Those are the qualities that we, as the Board of Governors, and we hope to see among our workers, desire to see in our workers and our management.”
The Director also drew a parallel between the journey of Indian indentured labourers to Trinidad and Tobago and the epic tale of Lord Rama, noting that both involved perseverance, sacrifice and overcoming hardship in pursuit of a better future.
“Sometimes I am inclined to believe that the whole journey and suffering that our Hindu brothers and sisters endured during the crossing of the Kala Pani, or Dark Waters, and eventually settling or finding a home in Trinidad and Tobago is just another retelling of the Ramayana in the new world.”
The Caribbean Airlines Divali festivities included a parade of Indian wear, tassa drumming, bhajans and the lighting of deyas, as the national carrier marked the Festival of Lights and celebrated Trinidad and Tobago’s rich cultural diversity.