By Lakhram Bhagirat
For Sasenarine Hitnarayan, there are two things he is immensely passionate about and those are cricket and singing. For him, like many artistes, he sees his music as being a tool for uniting people across boundaries.
The 26-year-old hails from Number 68 Village on the Corentyne Coast in East Berbice. His passion for singing and cricket developed simultaneously, since he can remember playing cricket from a tender age and started his singing career at just five years old.
“I spent most of my childhood days with my brothers and sisters. Growing up was always a struggle for us because we were very poor and had very little. But we were always contented with what we got and always worked hard for what we wanted,” he said.
The struggle for Sasenarine’s family intensified when his father left the home when he was just eight years old. This placed his mother, Sharmila, in a position where she had to venture out to take care of the family. It also meant the struggle intensified as they were growing up. It also had an impact on his ability to concentrate in school, but he persevered and is on the path to success. “I graduated Skeldon High School and then went on to start working at the Skeldon Estate as an agronomy hand in the year 2009 until it was closed.”
In relation to his singing, Sasenarine said that he first started at the age of five in his mandir and vividly remembers his first bhajan “Tum hi ho mata” and the encouragement he received. From there he was a regular in the temple’s kirtan group and would sing wherever he was afforded the opportunity to do so.
“Over the years, my love for music has grown so much that I utilised all the opportunities afforded to me. In 2013, I entered the GTT Jingle and Song Competition and I was selected to be in the top ten, but because of my financial difficulties I could not turn up to perform on the finals. But that never stopped me from living my dreams.” “I met Bunty Singh who was just starting to create his studio BKVJ in Shieldstown, West Berbice and I recorded my first song in the same year 2013. The song was “You are my Love”, and it was because I experience the worst heartbreak ever and I just put the songs into a song and it instantly became a hit and I was happy,” he notes.
To date, he has made 17 songs and has been actively pursuing his dreams of becoming an acclaimed singer, not just locally but also further afield. He has been capitalising on the various competitions and would have entered the Chutney Monarch contest three times, coming second last year. This year, he is hoping to snatch the crown and become King.
His track in this year’s competition is called “Love and Unity”. He says that it is a song that is calling on all Guyanese to come together as one people, in one nation with a common destiny of living together in unity.
“The song is sending a message to us Guyanese because we need to come together and love each other which is a way to a successful Guyana,” he explained.
Sasenarine said that he hoped to take the crown and work towards revolutionising the Chutney music scene making it more about addressing issues and promoting national harmony. He advises his fellow singers to do everything they can to ensure that they support each other and not try to bring down someone for their own benefit.
Sasenarine is wise beyond his age and he plans to continue influencing the kind of change Guyana needs through his music.
