HARESH Singh started to sing when he was just 15 years old and has remained in the industry for 33 years. Having accumulated a lot of experience over time, he believes that some things need to change in Guyana to provide for a fairer chance to be given to all artistes.
Haresh, 48, was born at Bush Lot, on the Essequibo Coast, and is well known there as the ‘Big Haresh’ or ‘Kumar Sanu’.
Speaking with the Buzz this week, he recalled that when the Chutney competition started in Guyana, it was to bring back and preserve Indian culture. “Now, many are distracted from their culture and are pursuing more westernised music,” he posited.

Having written more than 300 songs for himself and others, he said making music these days has come to be more about making money. For one thing, some artistes are lazy and refuse to compose their own music. What they do instead is to merely fill in words into already established Bollywood music.
This practice, therefore, affects the traditional chutney singers, Haresh pointed out, as those who use Bollywood music have the advantage of their song becoming more popular. This is because the public would have already been familiar with the music.
“Minister Charles Ramson made a statement that our culture is our wealth, and I also have that perspective. So I was inspired to speak up on this practice. We need to bring back the original chutney culture,” Haresh said.

“I can remember when the late Miss Lakshmi Kallicharran was running the chutney competition. We can’t allow a set of fly by night people to organise a premature Chutney competition for the sake of making money and kill our culture that our fore-parents brought and expected their legacy to live on. And it is getting worst year after year,” he added.
He said when indentured servants came to Guyana in 1838, they brought with them their customs and traditions which includes music. They came from Utar Pradesh and Bihar and their traditional music consisted of the drupad, thumri, tilana, etc.

“They were hot music to dance on played by our traditional instruments like dholak, harmonium, manjeera and more just to name a few. Some are already extinct. The Suriname people changed the name of the music to Baithak Gana and we named it Chutney meaning hot and spicy because of the fast danceable beats in the songs,” Haresh said.
“Where is our traditional Chutney? It is dying out. Today if the chutney competition has two or three traditional Chutney songs, they are not being placed in top positions,” he noted, adding, “There is also a lot of skullduggery going on in the selection of artistes and the domination of one band with others being left behind.”