We were in central Trinidad, driving past a sugarcane-field when my daughter, Saanjali, began a barrage of questions as toddlers usually do - how did the ‘grass’ get to be so tall, who planted it, who watered it, who took care of it…

My mind raced back to my own childhood and the stories to which I had eagerly listened, remarkable stories of courage, spirit, strength, sacrifice and endurance in the face of the hardships suffered during Indian indentureship under the British Crown, stories about grand, great-grand, great-great-grand parents and a host of other relatives. There was Aajaa who played the harmonium and composed bhajans, Aaji who toiled in the fields alongside him, Daadaa who spoke Bhojpuri and read Hindi but knew not one word of English, Daadi who adjusted her ghangri in readiness for a fight with anyone who threatened the welfare of the family, Naanaa who fasted and ‘built hosay’ in his yard and ‘danced the moon’, Naani who could not resist the music of the dholak and the tassa, Sutooree mosee, Pathaan phupphu, Bangaali (Bengali) maa, Chatri (Kshatriyaa) mausi and so many more.
And when we reached our journey’s end, I paused to catch my breath. “The End?” my daughter asked as she always did at the end of every story. “No, my love,” I said. “That was the beginning of our story in this land. You and I are part of their story, and one day, your children too shall continue the story.”

This book was written in recognition of the Indian indentured labourers who came to Trinidad between 1845 and 1917 and their contribution to our world. Much has been left unsaid, and this book simply lays the foundation. Story telling and activities are combined in an imaginative and creative way to pass on our ancestral inheritance to the little ones.