Canucks is life!
Habeeb Alli
From Guyana
5 years since in Canada
They ask me why I came
From where do I originate?
Do I have any English Skills?
They want to know of my religious base too
I was blessed to be born in Guyana
Studied in India
And travelled the world over and over
Where pains and laughter mingle
Yet I chose cold Canada
Where my families and friends
Made babies and bought houses
To be my children’s residence forever
It’s the freedom to live
The fearlessness to party
The respect of my multiple origins
The sweetness of polite Canadians all about
This love found new
Gives education fragrance
Women color, dignity and saris
Besides constitutional protection from machetes
Opportunities and more chances
Canux is life
With a canoe or a cricket bat
Here is where my bones will dissolve.
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3 comments:
Dear Editor
While much happens in Guyana to keep the culture alive and the lives safe the Diaspora struggles daily to make the flag of their hometown proudly fly high. One of those is the much awaited summer picnics. Enmore Day in Toronto was no different except it was uniquely organized.
Hats off to the organizers, who have labored selflessly, for the past three years to bring entertainment and socializing to Enmoreans here! The value of this much-witnessed-event this time around is timeless. Families enjoyed a sunny picnic in colorful camaraderie, while memories racked constantly as old school mates and old friends bounced into each other putting a face to Facebook! One visitor from New York commented that this event is simply outstanding as it provides non stop entertainment.
Enmore is more than a place in Guyana. It can be a town of great value, since it boasts of a history plus the many amenities and geo-political position many others don't have.
Being a sugar estate, a business hub and manufacturing site, it enjoys economic eminence that should be exploited further where town-like recognition is granted and increase governmental assistance can enhance the productivity of its residents.
Enmore is the site of the Enmore martyrs from whence the struggle of independence arose like a phoenix, creating the inspiration and knowledge for Guyana's multiple political leaders.
This hometown truly produced scholars not only to the coveted town schools and scholarships abroad, but even scientists internationally.
Literary maestro walked this land in the form of Peter Jailal and others.
Selfless philanthropists patted the heads of the needy and homeless like Manman and Sugrim Ramdular.
Religious gurus like Hyderalli and Bhawan family are known beyond Enmore seawall!
National cricketer Sheik Mohamed and many other sports people are sons of this fertile farm land. Presently Ministers from Enmore and lawyers are known personalities that have something tangible for the next generation to venerate. Strong willed and loving so goes the epithet Enmore people have received gracefully.
In music, the famous Vidyarthi orchestra being the household name for many until today continues in Toronto with the legendary Bhim Singh- the man that makes the guitar talk the language of love!
While it's too much to mention all here, yet one must not humility as it's the grace of God that the off springs of the self sacrificing ancestors have been able to empower themselves and the land that once drank their great grand fathers' blood, sweat and tears. This is in no way an insult to the other villages and the contributions of others. It's a simple act of reminding the visionaries to make good of an endowed historical place where our children can be proud of.
You can say Enmore got talents but you have to live there to know it. After all 'is only knife know wah deh in pumpkin belly'.
Thanks
Yours truly,
Habeeb Alli
How am I?
In this another month of Ramadan
Working between hours while catching up sleep
Praying that the fast lasts until the azan in slumber
Summer makes it feel harder
But images of millions thirsty
And The Fire with fury
Keeps my days going by without a thunder
Taraweeh in the masaajid is such a miracle
All competing for the finale
While appeals for donations goes unheard
Except the trickle of genorosity and that is well regarded
Iftars and dinners still a pleasure
Where diverse cuisine compete for our hunger
And speeches by redundant thoughts fail to satiate the younger
But where is the spirit in all this madness: for God's answer?
Maybe it's the unreasonableness of love
Where the lover and beloved awaits their encounter
While sacrificing everything to make it matter
So at end of today it's meeting Him and not eating that makes me happier!
Ramadan should not be a month of curtailed desire
It should be a month of keeping promises
So everyday becomes Allah's desire
And when we meet Him, we can say I kept fast only for your pleasure!
Eid and Ramadan ending
Greetings are here
So bland and mundane
If it wasn't that a whole month went by
And it was for this day I care
Where I sacrifice my-don't-care-a-damn-lifestyle
Will finally get rewarded
With blessings piling up
And gifts and hugs and God knows what else in the basket
Till next year I suppose, God willing
But let me say this much
I, in wishing you an Happy Eid feelings
That God cares more for the broken hearted
Like the sick child in her mother's eyes
When it's done
It's love that make us leave our desires
Love for Him made us pull through these long hours
Who can question how sincere a fasting person is?
She can hide and quickly bite but refuse to
Because her Beloved is in her thoughts right through!
So it's only right
That the lover gets paid directly by the Beloved
And a gift only He knows its worth and wraps it too!
Eid Saeed, too, to you my dear One!
Like the new moon we herald soon
May this new year will be delightful and shiny
Serene like her on her glorious night
On your soul and your loved ones' heart forever!
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