Sunday Express

Section 2

October 29, 2000

Pages 6, 7

Rhoda Asgarali so loved to perform Indian music that she never asked for payment when she performed. She was never paid one cent.

One of the top singers in the past, Asgarali started her singing career with the Naya Zamana Indian orchestra in 1951. It was an era when few Indian women were bold enough to sing in public. There were only three Indian women on the singing stage – Zohra Seesahai, Champa Devi and Rhoda Asgarali.

Born on April 24, 1927 at Calcutta Street, St James, Asgarali learned singing Indian songs – bhajans and folk numbers while a pupil at St James CM School.

“We used to have Indian cultural concerts at the school and at these concerts we sang songs in Hindi.

“My mother was a Brahmin Hindu named Gauri Sankar. My father, Emmanuel Asgarali, was a Muslim. He was the overseer at the Botanic Gardens in Port of Spain. From my mother I learned Hindi and reading of the Ramayan, because she was fluent in Ramayan reading and Hindi. I used to follow both religions. I went with my mother to Hindu functions and my father to Muslim functions,” Asgarali said.

“When I left school I learned Urdu at the masjid in St James. I also learned to sing cassidas and quawalis,” she added. “One time I came first in a friendly cassida concert at the masjid.”

Her singing career with Naya Zamana started in 1951, when one of the band’s leading singers Jang Bahadoor urged her mother to “send the girl to sing with the band” which was then located at George Street, Port of Spain.

“I remember my mother advising me ‘if you can’t pronounce your words properly then there’s no use going out there to sing’.”

Nazeer Mohammed, the leader of the band, took her in as a singer and there the atmosphere was like one big family, she recalls. “It was safe in those days to walk around any part of town. Now you only have to read the newspapers to see the kind of crimes taking place,” she says.

In Naya Zamana she sang all types of songs but specialised in gazals and cassidas. She also sang solos and duets taken from the popular Hindi film of the day and featuring singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad Begum, Amir Bhai, Jutika Roy, Geeta Dutt and others.

The Naya Zamana band was so popular that there was always a big rush to see the band perform. People almost broke down tents to catch a closer glimpse of the artistes in the band. And Rhoda Asgarali was the darling of the crowd wherever she performed.

“In 1960 we went to Guyana for a three-week concert tour. The band was a big hit there. We performed mainly in cinemas and thrilled hundreds of music fans in that country. We also performed at a Hindu wedding in the interior of Guyana. Dr Cheddi Jagan came to see us perform because he had heard of the high reputation of Naya Zamana.”

She remembers that while large crowds of people came to see them, even larger swarms of mosquitoes came at nights to inflict pain on visiting band members to that country.

“I never worked. After my husband died, my brothers Nyron, Edwin and Arthur ensured that we got all the basic necessities of life and that we were comfortable. Yes, my brother Nyron Asgarali played cricket for Trinidad and the West Indies. I don’t remember much cricket statistics as I didn’t see many matches. But I remember seeing him at the Oval with Jeffery Stollmeyer and other players,” she recalled.

Asgarali stopped singing in 1965, after a 14-year-career with Naya Zamana. “I never get anything from the band during my singing days, not even a five-dollar. Yes, Ustad Nazeer Mohammed never paid me to sing. There were others who used to get big money. I sang because of my love for Indian music,” she said.

“I did a recording at Strand cinema in Port of Spain and the Samaroo boy, owner of the cinema, presented me with the two “45” records. That’s all I have to show as a singer,” she said.

As the first lady of Indian song from St James, Asgarali was presented with a plaque by Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, for her outstanding contribution to Indian culture, during Indian arrival Day celebrations at St James in 1998.

Of her two sons and one daughter, only one son, Azim Baksh, took to playing Indian music with the BWIA National Indian orchestra. But because of work and family life commitments, he has quit.

Questioned about the conduct and performance of Indian artistes in this country today, she says regretfully: “Don’t talk about that. I never see such vulgarity in my life. I prefer not to talk about that.”

In her home she has an antique radio and an old record player – all covered under sheets of cloth, an indication of her loss of interest in Indian songs and music. “I only look at TV. I see some of the Indian programmes there. That’s all.”

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