Terry Gajraj  Guyana Baboo

TERRY GAJRAJ: "I MISS GUYANA SO MUCH" by Erline Andrews {CaribbeanBEAT Issue 82 NOV/DEC 2006}

Being on the stage is what I love the most. I love being in the studio as well, but to see how the fans react to the music, that means more to me.

I was born into the music. My uncles were musicians. My grandfather was a priest in a mandir. Every Sunday morning he’d be singing, chanting. I got into it very naturally, very unconsciously. My uncles taught me a little guitar, a little keyboard. When I was a teenager I felt like I really wanted to perform, because I had an uncle who was in a band called the Dil Bahar Orchestra. He would take me to rehearsals. When I saw what they did, the music they sang, and how the crowd responded, I’m like, “Oh my God, this is so good!”

Then [Trinidadian chutney star] Sundar Popo came out with his “Nani and Nana” song. I felt he was singing something that related to me. He was singing English, but it was an Indian melody, and it was such a beautiful mix. From that time, I knew that was something that I wanted to do.

When I started performing, my parents didn’t even know. I was so damn shy I didn’t want anyone I knew to be around when I sang. A band from Georgetown came to our village. I asked to sing a song and they said, yeah. My parents were at a prayer, one of those long seven-night prayers that Hindus do. I did one song and the crowd loved it, and they asked me to sing another song. I sang Wendy Alleyne’s “I Have a Thing About You”. Then the next song I sang was “Umbayayo” by [Trinidadian calypsonian] Merchant. It was a mixed crowd. They got a kick from watching an Indian guy singing this song. Later I started my own little group. Then I did everything I wanted to do, which was to mix the music from India and calypso.

In Guyana, there’s no other prominent chutney singer doing what I’m doing. In Trinidad you have Rikki Jai and a bunch of other guys doing it. In Guyana it’s not that many. I had a passion, a hunger for it. I so wanted to do this thing and represent Guyana.

In Guyana you find a lot of [Indian] singers that are more pro-Hindi. They will go sing the songs that are from India, a Mukesh, a Rafi, or whatever. But I don’t believe that’s what being a Guyanese is about. Being Guyanese is about, yes, our foreparents came from India, but I’m also a Caribbean person. I feel I have to represent both: I’m a Caribbean man and an Indian man at the same time. I did a song called “Indo-Caribbean Man”. It’s about being an Indo-Caribbean man and not forgetting your culture.

In Guyana, when you came out of high school and you did well, they would offer you a job as a teacher. And my dad was a school teacher. [Being a teacher] gave me the opportunity to play my guitar and sing for the kids. I taught fourth and fifth form literature, English language, and history. I helped organise concerts for Christmas, Easter, Phagwa. I was into all the cultures. I would play my guitar and sing for the Lutheran Church when they had their crusades. I had no biases. I’d play for everybody. So I was very much in demand by all the religions.

I didn’t teach for very long, just for about two or three years. Then I migrated [to the US]. I migrated because of the economic conditions in Guyana. It was the thing to do. Everyone was leaving.

My very first job here was as a mail clerk at American Home Products in Manhattan. I worked my way up and I became a legal clerk. I would use the weekends to perform all over the place and see where the culture is, and how I can get into the music. I love to write. I’ve stopped counting the number of songs I’ve written.

While working at American Home Products, some friends encouraged me to move to Connecticut to start a little group there. They said, “The living is better, and you’d have a better job.” I took the opportunity and I went. I stayed by a very nice family. Eventually I got my own little place. Then my mom, dad, and the rest of the family came over.

“Baboo” means native: Guyana baboo, India baboo, Trinidad baboo. When you first leave and you come [to the US], it’s so hard. I had no family or anything, so it was very, very hard. I had so many verses for that song, because I missed Guyana so much, and it was about the love for Guyana and how much I missed it and wanted to go back.

I have a daughter, Shreeya Madhuri Gajraj, 21, and a son, Akshay Algu Gajraj, 17. I gave him my great-grandfather’s middle name, Algu. He came from India. [After indentureship] he did rice farming, and that was passed on to my grandfather.

I’m divorced. My singing and travelling meant I was never home. We tried to compromise, but it never quite worked out. She felt I should have stayed in Connecticut. It would have meant giving up the singing. I don’t want to give it up.

Currently it’s all I do, but it’s hard. It’s only the top five per cent of performers who really make the money. I make ends meet. I basically perform every single week. I don’t like performing, say, in Queens, just because it’s convenient. I love to take it out[side], because Guyanese and Trinidadians are everywhere.

I want [my audience] to have fun, but every single CD that I’ve done, there’s always a few meaningful songs, and I always try for the dialect, the phrases, the words of Guyana. I try to put it in songs so it’ll be there for future generations. I did a song, “Granny Nah Run Granny Nah Ketch”. It’s about the proverbs and all those old sayings in Guyana. “Indo-Caribbean Man” I did tremendous research for, so I could get my facts correct.

One of the very first songs I wrote was “Guyana Nice But It Ugly”. I took a lot of criticism for that. People were, like, “How can you talk bad about your country?” I believe in leaving it in song so it’s there for history, your kids, grandkids, generations to come.

I do feel disconnected [from Guyana] sometimes, but thank God for online. I’m always thinking about returning, but I think I can do Guyana more justice by being out here and promoting Guyana from here.

Read the original article here: http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-82/terry-gajraj-i-miss-guyana-so-much#ixzz4DWi9rSLG 
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“In everything that I do, Guyana remains first place in my heart. I attempt to inject a flavour of my home country into my songs.” 

By Leonard Gildarie 

Perhaps one of the most famous speeches ever made that drew on what patriotism should be was one by former US President, John F. Kennedy, at his inauguration in Washington on January 20, 1961. 

Terry ‘Guyana Baboo’ Gajraj 

He challenged Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country.” 
The words have been echoed by many and continue to this day to stir the imaginations and tug at the heartstrings of even those who lived outside of the US. 
It is believed that almost one million Guyanese live outside of Guyana. Staggering…if taken in context of the fact that Guyana has around 750,000 persons living within its shores. 
Many Guyanese have gone on to excel beyond these shores. They include the likes of Norman Beaton, who made his name in the popular British sitcom, ‘Desmond’; singer Eddy Grant who has rubbed shoulders with royalty and drew adoring crowds that singers can only dream of; poet Martin Carter and diplomat Sir Shridath Ramphal. Guyana would also want to claim a little of Bajan-born sensation, Rihanna, whose Guyanese roots are well known. 
And then there is another level of standout which includes an individual like Terry Gajraj. 
Gajraj, in the 1990s, had Guyana dancing and singing with his popularly infectious “Guyana Baboo” album. One of the songs, titled ‘Guyana Baboo’, became a craze in the Queens, New York community, spreading like wildfire down to Guyana and Trinidad, making the Berbice-born youngster an instant sensation and the song an anthem. 
The album was recorded in a little Bronx apartment in one night with frequent stops to cater for the noise from passing trains. It was done on a cassette…there were no CDs back in those days. 
It was but small testimony of how the little boy from the village of Fyrish remained determined to follow his dream of singing, regardless of the odds.  He would have released two other albums starting in 1990 – ‘Soca Lambada’ and ‘Caribana ‘92’. But it was ‘Guyana Baboo’ that did it for him. 

Posing with The Golden Arrowhead in front of the world renowned Taj Mahal in India. 

His boyish good looks and impressive physical condition have also helped him to keep performing non-stop every single weekend on the road for the last 15-20 years, not an easy feat for any artiste. And he has outlasted many a one-hit wonder. 

First to perform 
Gajraj is the first Caribbean singer to perform at the Millennium Bollywood Music Awards… the Indian equivalent of the Grammys. He has been described as the unofficial goodwill ambassador for Guyanese music and culture. 
But perhaps one of the biggest attractions of Gajraj is his ability to take seemingly taboo subjects, like the ‘Guyana Baboo’, and make it his own. It was a song chorused by the little ‘ole’ ladies at wedding houses.  Not many singers would have dared to put a mix on it. But with his love for all things Guyana, the New York-based lad who was groomed by his Pandit grandfather and uncles, found it a no-brainer. 
While others have claimed to have written the song, it was Gajraj’s rendition that made it “immortal”. His ‘Lilawattie’ and ‘Come Le Go Sooky’, and ‘Champa come’, on the same ‘Guyana Baboo’ album, became standard wedding house fixtures. 
His contributions to Guyana saw him wearing his Guyana colours and the flags, making him a true representative in every sense of the word. Everything for him was somehow tinged with something Guyana. 
He has sung between 300-500 songs, recording almost 30 albums during the last 20 years. These included a compilation of Guyanese folk songs.  He has done Maxi Priest and renditions of ‘Roses are Red” and ‘Take the Ribbon’. He has even performed some of Tom Jones’ songs. 
Terry has become an automatic invitee for the chutney shows in Guyana and is in constant demand in gigs throughout the region, Canada and the US. 
“In everything that I do, Guyana remains first place in my heart. I attempt to inject a flavour of my home country into my songs.” He even has his costumes depicting Guyana’s flag. 
Gajraj is not too enthusiastic talking about his age…he is a 30-something or 40-something. 
Separated now, he understands it is a demanding calling that involved sacrifices…lots of it. 

Religious 
Gajraj, or Terry as he insists to be called, grew up in Fyrish Road, Corentyne, East Berbice. 
His father was a head teacher of the school while his ‘Aja’ (grandfather) was the Pandit at the local mandir. 
“So yes, I came from a religious background.” 

An ecstatic fan learning the ropes with Terry’s help 

He was the eldest of three with his two siblings being girls. While the family was not rich, they were by no means starving. 
His introduction to music was the radio and at the mandir.  At an early age, his uncles taught him the Dholak, Dantal, harmonium and even the guitar. 
“I am not ashamed to say where I came from. I have known persons from my homeland who have migrated and have travelled for vacations all over the world but never returned home.” 
It would not have been unusual for Terry to go ‘ketch” fish and he still remembers his mother’s kitchen garden. Terry remembers all too vividly the effects of the restrictions on the importation of certain food items, like flour, by the government back then. 
His idol was Trinidad’s Sundar Popo, regarded as the King of Chutney Music in those days. “I listened to him and he was singing about me.” 
Even at a tender age, Terry was clear in his mind that music was in his blood and that it was something that he would be doing for the rest of his life. 
Between life at the mandir and school, he was busy following his uncles to sing bhajans at the religious functions at home and weekend shows. He became a pest to his uncles, insisting that he get a part in a band, ‘Dil Bahar’ that was doing gigs in the East Berbice area. 
Terry’s “big break” in his work with bands eventually came. Laughing, he said it was as a helper holding a microphone to the bongo drum that was being played. But he persevered, dreaming big. 
He did well at the CXC exams and even became a “pupil teacher” for a while, tutoring some of his classmates. 
In the late 1980s Terry and his family migrated to New York. He was still determined to pursue his music dream, but the reality of making a living was all too real. He worked as mail clerk for a while, before joining the insurance industry. 
But he was still making his rounds in the show business circuit. 
“I knew I wanted this badly and I even ended up singing for free on many occasions.” 

Innovator 
Soon, with his lively, interactive style of getting the crowd riled, waving their hands and “giving a shout out” Terry started to become popular. Managers were demanding him as part of their shows. 
He has credited the current “shout out” style as something that he started to keep the crowd alive. He was not satisfied with the “standing up and sing style”. 

Terry (at left) with Trinidad’s Ravi B at Clash of the Titans at the National Stadium. 

“All the DJs are now using it. Things like telling the crowd to raise your hands…wine yuh waist…screw de light bulb…I am proud to say I started that. Everybody picked up on it.” 
It was around 1992 that Terry and couple of friends started earnestly working on an album…and that was how ‘Guyana Baboo’ was born. 
Using a small, makeshift studio in a Bronx apartment, Terry and another singer, David Ramoutar, recorded eight songs in one night. It was more than a year before the songs started catching on. And strangely enough, before it hit Guyana, it was Trinidad that Terry’s name was beginning to sink in as an artiste to be reckoned with. 
The songs were all written with the mandatory Guyana theme, an aspect that he has continued to insist on playing over the years. 
It was the soca-mad Trinidad that he did his first big show in the region before his grand homecoming to Guyana. 
In 1994, the National Park was packed to its fullest and Gajraj wooed the crowds and tantalized them with his music. But it was his show at Albion, East Berbice, not far from where he grew up, that saw the crowds overflowing the grounds. It was beginning of many more such visits. 
“Yes, the ‘90s was the record decade for me.” 

Big Up 
But while Terry is happy that his music has remained part of a Guyanese culture over the years, he is unhappy that local artistes are just not given the needed exposure. 
“We see Trinidad and Jamaica and Barbados bigging up their music with the radios playing them all the time. There was a time Trinidad was playing music that was not their own. Then they realized that that was all wrong. It is hypocritical to wake up and hear the radios playing songs predominantly not local. We have good singers, good lyrics.” 
Last year, Terry participated in the lucrative TT$1M chutney competition, promising to donate all the proceeds to charity if he won. While he did not win, the Berbice boy is nevertheless is pushing his charity, ‘saveabee.org’. He has sponsored an ongoing computer programme in Cotton Tree, Berbice. 
Terry is also making it a habit to do one free show every month, donating the proceeds to charity. 
“Growing up in a mandir and I still do go regularly with my family, I do believe I have to give back.” 
The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) is now set to honour Terry for his contributions.  He is said to be one of Guyana’s most touring solo singers, performing in Suriname, Holland, Spain, England (notably at the prestigious Wembley Stadium in London) and at all the major carnivals. He has also performed with top names in the soca/calypso arena including the Mighty Sparrow, “Hot Hot” Arrow, Machel Montano, Calypso Rose and Byron Lee, Sundar Popo, Sonny Mann, Ramdeo Chaitoe, Kries Ramkhelawan, Rikki Jai and celebrated Indian performers Babla and Kanchan. 
For his contributions to music and his work in showcasing Guyana in the region and around the world, Terry Gajraj is unquestionably a “Special Person”.