IN days apart, two international icons have passed away. Dharmendra, Bollywood actor from India and Caribbean reggae singer from Jamaica, Jimmy Cliff. Both of them were cultural icons for me, both of them were an essential part of my teenage existence.
I had a unique cultural evolution. I was born in a south Georgetown ward named Wortmanville that was at the time 98 percent African. I think there may be a one or two percent decrease in that percentage.
But for all you know, Wortmanville may still be 98 percent African. I went to primary school in Wortmanville that was 99 percent African. All my boyhood friends in Wortmanville were African Guyanese.
I grew up as a West Indian who embraced soul, rhythm and blue, ska, rocky stead and reggae and calypso. I knew almost every soul song and reggae tune. Jimmy Cliff emerged as the more sophistical reggae singer in the early and mid-seventies dethroning Ken Lazarus who reigned supreme in the mid and late 1960s.
Jimmy simply took over reggae and gave it more depth and more philosophy. Jimmy’s reggae music was not about pop music it was about making music out of philosophy.
There is no question in my mind that Bob Marley got philosophical inspiration from the lyrics of Cliff.
Songs “Like many rivers to cross, “You can get it if you really try, “The harder they come,” among others, were not simply ordinary reggae music.
Of all his philosophical songs, the one I like the best is a typical pop song, without any philosophical meaning, named “Reggae Nights.” I like “Reggae Nights because it reminds me of my time in Grenada working for Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and a phenomenal Caribbean experiment in revolution that may have changed the way the world saw revolutionary nation-building but ended up in tragedy.
“Reggae nights” was extremely popular in Grenada at the time. I would say that outside of four Bob Marley hits, “Reggae Nights” is my fifth best reggae song.
At the same time I was a West Indian in Wortmanville, I was a Hindu youth too. My mother was a devoted Hindu. She did not live to see her granddaughter from me but no one could have persuaded me not to give my daughter a Hindu name. It never occurred to me that I could go for another cultural identity. My daughter’s name is Kavita, Hindu word, meaning poetry. Of course, my wife is Muslim, so my kid’s other name is Muslim – Farah.
Through the influence of our mother my brother and I never missed an Indian film coming to Guyana. Four cinemas in Georgetown in the 60s and 70s showed Indian movies – Rio in Albouystown, Hollywood in Kitty, Empire on Middle Street and numero uno – Liberty on Garnet Street in Newtown Kitty. I never missed a Dharmendra movie.
He was my second-best Hindi actor after Rajesh Khanna. Dharmendra unfortunately never achieved mega-stardom the way Rajesh did because in the 1970s Rajesh smothered every major female and male Hindu actor. In those days, the Hindi screen was Rajesh and Rajesh was the Hindi screen.
What each movie-goer did at the time was that they would have a favourite actor who was number one but they put Rajesh in as separate space. And that is what I did. Dharmendra was on the top of my list but Rajesh was special. This is what my mother did too. Dharmendra was her favourite but Rajesh was special to her.
I have a lot of memories of Jimmy Cliff and Dharmendra, both in my teenagerhood and as a freshman at the University of Guyana. If you are too young to be acquainted with the music of Jimmy, then please see one of the Caribbean’s best films that put reggae on the global map – “The Harder They Come” starring the man himself.
India is going to miss one of the greatest talents it produced in Dharmendra. Jamaica is going to miss one of its greatest sons, Jimmy Cliff. You never forget these people and you never will because they were there in your life as you broke out into the world. I remember Jimmy Cliff because his music was in life in Wortmanville and dominated campus life at UG at the time I was a student there.
I remember Dharmendra because his movies reminded me of the opportunity I never had of going to High School. I got my GCEs doing afternoon lessons at Guyana Oriental College on Thomas Street which is now Eureka Labs. Many afternoons, some of us would miss classes and off to Liberty to see Dharmendra. I wish both of them didn’t have to die. But we all do.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.