The Indian High commission's special guest at its 48^th Republic Day celebrations was Fazal Ali, an indentured labourer who came to Trinidad with his mother and younger brother 91 years ago.

Indian High Commissioner Inder Ver Chopra, on Monday presented Ali, 102, with the book Muslims in India.

Chopra described Ali as "one of the handful of survivors' from the period of indentureship and one of he "living links" between India and Trinidad and Tobago.

The former indentured labourer walks slowly with his shoulders hunched and has difficulty hearing.

A small boned man just under five feet, Ali was born in Sultapur, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, in 1896. He arrived in Trinidad on board the ship 633 Mersey on February 8, 1906, with his mother Maharaji and his brother Ramsundar who fell ill and died in 1914. His father, Ramsankar, had died long before but he can't recall details of his demise.

"In those days they had no doctor and thing," he says of his brother's death.

He remembered that he, his mother and brother had gone to the market in India where a man told his mother he'd take them to a "nice place to live".

"He sent us into a government office and we could not come out," he said. "I liked Trinidad, but I can tell you nothing about India."

He was born a Hindu and was given the name Ramjindar, but later converted to the Muslim faith. He and his mother were assigned to work at the Waterloo, Carapichaima, sugar plantation. He was paid ten cents and his mother 24 cents a day to "clean cane".

Ali said they worked there for four years before leaving the estate to live in Aranjuez, where he still lives.

"I was ten at he time," Ali said. "It was bushy, not many houses. Aranjuez was a sugarcane estate. We start to do garden work."

The family planted and sold tomatoes at a penny a pound and melongene at four cents a heap.

Today, five of Ali's surviving children, Nabijan, Rahamut, Hasmath, Rakeeb and John Mohammed, who converted to Christianity, continue the farming tradition. They plant melongene, watermelon, cabbage and tomatoes on 30 acres of land.

"Now they use tractor," Ali says, instead of the hoe and cutlass he and his mother were accustomed to using to prepare the land.

The Indian High Commission held a small function at its Victoria Avenue, Port of Spain offices to observe the occasion. Vishwanath Pacherwal and Rana Mohip sang classical songs while Avadh Singh Thakur played the tabla on desks pulled together in a makeshift stage. Guests were later served samosas, rasgoola (a sweet), cake and mini pizzas.