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families were rejected because they said you guys abandoned us for five years. you might as well take that five acres of land and stay there. so there is no closure to decedents like us, who have not found any connection between our families in india. >> anthony: soft paratha dough cooked on a massive tawah and slathered in gee. but here, just as it's reaching peak flakiness, it gets a beating. >> keshav: here they call it buss up shut which means burst out of shirt. >> anthony: burst up shirt. >> man in white shirt: yeah because they take two huge parotta and then they whack it with two sticks. >> anthony: oh, okay. i thought you were talking about what's going to happen to my shirt. what about skin color? you look at jamaica, you look at haiti. i don't get what they say, but what they do is still a powerful determinant of where your status is in the power structure. does that exist here?
diplomat. his son, keshav, is a music producer. uncle charlie is in charge of the cooking. >> anthony: how far back does the family go? >> chan: this family has gone back to 1845. >> anthony: 1845, those were hard times. life was not good for the family in india. >> chan: there was poverty, there were wars and all sorts of things, and yes they came into really hard times here because the indians emigrated from india, replaced the liberated slaves and the conditions were not very different. >> keshav: difficult times but it was a means to social mobility away from the situation in india. >> chan: and we are products of decedents of that generation. >> anthony: start with one whole duck, hack into pieces, rub with lime juice, season with hot peppers, garlic and the tropical herb chadon beni.
add generous helpings of masala and curry powder. marinate for a bit then sear in oil, and then simmer in coconut milk until tender. >> anthony: man that's good, they better kill some more ducks because that is --. >> keshav: when we have it like this when we're drinking before the actual meal, it's like an appetizer but we call it cutters because it cuts the alcohol. >> anthony: right, i'm sobering up as we speak. >> anthony: so look you're all trinidadian, trinidad first, indian second. >> man wearing blue shirt: i mean when the indians came 160 something years ago there was a disconnect with the motherland. >> chan: most of these indians were promised that they were going for a short tenure, to make a lot of money and then return home. >> man wearing blue shirt: they gave return passage or land. >> chan: so when the first indians took the option to go back, they couldn't find their families.
and those who found their families were rejected because they said you guys abandoned us for five years. you might as well take that five acres of land and stay there. so there is no closure to decedents like us, who have not found any connection between our families in india. >> anthony: soft paratha dough cooked on a massive tawah and slathered in gee. but here, just as it's reaching peak flakiness, it gets a beatin'. >> keshav: here they call it buss up shut which means burst out of shirt. >> anthony: burst up shirt. >> man in white shirt: yeah because they take two huge parotta and then they whack it with two sticks. >> anthony: oh, okay. i thought you were talking about what's going to happen to my shirt. what about skin color? you look at jamaica, you look at haiti. i don't get what they say, but what they do is still a powerful determinant of where your status is in the power structure. does that exist here?
producer. uncle charlie is in charge of the cooking. >> anthony: how far back does the family go? >> chan: this family has gone back to 1845. >> anthony: 1845, those were hard times. life was not good for the family in india. >> chan: there was poverty, there were wars and all sorts of things, and yes they came into really hard times here because the indians emigrated from india, replaced the liberated slaves and the conditions were not very different. >> keshav: difficult times but it was a means to social mobility away from the situation in india. >> chan: and we are products of decedents of that generation. >> anthony: start with one whole duck, hack into pieces, rub with lime juice, season with hot peppers, garlic and the tropical herb chadon beni. add generous helpings of masala
you might as well take that five acres of land and stay there. so there is no closure to decedents like us, who have not found any connection between our families in india. >> anthony: soft paratha dough cooked on a massive tawah and slathered in gee. but here, just as it's reaching peak flakiness, it gets a beatin'. >> keshav: here they call it buss up shut which means burst out of shirt. >> anthony: burst up shirt. >> man in white shirt: yeah because they take two huge parotta and then they whack it with two sticks. >> anthony: oh, okay. i thought you were talking about what's going to happen to my shirt. what about skin color? you look at jamaica, you look at haiti. i don't get what they say, but what they do is still a werful determinant of where your status is in the power structure. does that exist here? >> man in blue shirt: it's not something that has consumed our imagination.
and curry powder. marinate for a bit then sear in oil, and then simmer in coconut milk until tender. >> anthony: man that's good, they better kill some more ducks because that is --. >> keshav: when we have it like this when we're drinking before the actual meal, it's like an appetizer but we call it cutters because it cuts the alcohol. >> anthony: right, i'm sobering up as we speak. >> anthony: so look you're all trinidadian, trinidad first, indian second. >> man wearing blue shirt: i mean when the indians came 160 something years ago there was a disconnect with the motherland. >> chan: most of these indians were promised that they were going for a short tenure, to make a lot of money and then return home. >> man wearing blue shirt: they gave return passage or land. >> chan: so when the first indians took the option to go back, they couldn't find their families. and those who found their families were rejected because they said you guys abandoned us for five years.
reasons. and they looked around they tried portuguese, they tried chinese, they tried many communities, until they found out that indians were the best suited because they've already planted sugar cane in india successfully. >> anthony: between the end of outright slavery and the beginning of world war i 150,000 indentured servants were brought here from india. indentured servitude is slavery by another name. the people brought here from india were bought, sold and treated like property, but were told if they completed five years of often backbreaking labor, they would be set free. noon on a monday, ordinarily a workday, but today, the singh family is having a boy's river lime. chan, the patriarch is a retired diplomat. his son, keshav, is a music
cooked on a massive tawah and slathered in gee. but here, just as it's reaching peak flakiness, it gets a beatin'. >> keshav: here they call it buss up shut which means burst out of shirt. >> anthony: burst up shirt. >> man in white shirt: yeah because they take two huge parotta and then they whack it with two sticks. >> anthony: oh, okay. i thought you were talking about what's going to happen to my shirt. what about skin color? you look at jamaica, you look at haiti. i don't get what they say, but what they do is still a powerful determinant of where your status is in the power structure. does that exist here? >> man in blue shirt: it's not something that has consumed our imagination. being trinidadian is not necessarily color tune oriented, but its more and i think people really revel and enjoy is the common experiences. the food is the glue that binds thisociety together. >> chan: in spite of the problem
because that is --. >> keshav: when we have it like this when we're drinking before the actual meal, it's like an appetizer but we call it cutters because it cuts the alcohol. >> anthony: right, i'm sobering up as we speak. >> anthony: so look you're all trinidadian, trinidad first, indian second. >> man wearing blue shirt: i mean when the indians came 160 something years ago there was a disconnect with the motherland. >> chan: most of these indians were promised that they were going for a short tenure, to make a lot of money and then return home. >> man wearing blue shirt: they gave return passage or land. >> chan: so when the first indians took the option to go back, they couldn't find their families. and those who found their families were rejected because they said you guys abandoned us for five years. you might as well take that five acres of land and stay there. so there is no closure to decedents like us, who have not found any connection between our families in india. >> anthony: soft paratha dough