Bihar hamlet decks up to welcome its daughter — Trinidad PM

Patna, January 10
Bhelupur, a non-descript, dark hamlet in Bihar’s Buxar district, is euphoric these days. And why wouldn’t it be. The occasion is grand and the stakes, high. Bhelpur, the native village of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar, is trying its every bit to roll out the red carpet for the VVIP who would be visiting the place tomorrow.

Ever since the villagers got to know about her visit, they have gone into overdrive, making arrangements for the special occasion.

Preparations are on to make special ‘Litti-Chokha’, ‘Chura-Dahi’ and ‘Lai-Tilkut’ — all ethnic Bihari cuisine — which would be offered to the visiting dignitary.

“The district administration is getting two helipads made at the village where the Indian Air Force choppers carrying Persad and her entourage will land. The government is also providing security to the VVIP during her two-hour stay at the village. The rest of the things are being taken care of by the villagers themselves,” circle officer of Itarhi block, Bharat Bhushan, under whose jurisdiction the village comes, told The Tribune.

The villager doesn’t have any power and its residents were hopeful of getting electricity connections but that didn’t happen. However, the villagers are not complaining and have put their heart and soul into renovating the lanes through which the delegation will pass.

As the Trinidad PM does not know Hindi or Bhojpuri, the dialect spoken by the people of her ancestral land, she will be accompanied by a team of expert interpreters and translators.

Ramlakhan Mishra, the eldest member of her ancestral family in the village, said the villagers had collected money to present her a silver crown. Persad, who is in India in connection with Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which concluded yesterday at Jaipur, would also be asked to plant five variety of trees on her ancestral land.

The villagers also plan to present her a chunk of soil from the village that she would carry back home.

The Trinidad PM had commissioned her country’s top genealogist to trace her roots and it took him years of hard work to zero down on the humble family of Ram Lakhan Mishra’s descendents here.

According to genealogist’s findings, it was Ram Lakhan Mishra who left Bhelupur to board the ship named ‘Volga’ from Calcutta port (now Kolkata) on July 18, 1889 as a Girmitiya labourer to work in the Caribbeans. Of the 555 passengers on board, 18 died during the three-month long journey. Mishra survived the trip and landed on the island on October 21, 1889 and made it his home. He was unmarried when he reached Trinidad and Tobago, then a British colony.

Subsequently, after he settled there, he married a local girl. His son named Chauranji Persad got married to Sumitra Persad and gave birth to Lilraj Persad who became owner of an oil company there and his daughter Kamla was sworn in as the first women PM of Trinidad &Tobago on May 26, 2010. She was the Attorney Journal of her country before being elected to Parliament from Siparia in 1991.