Tourism
Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott begins his oration with an anecdote about the village of Felicity in Trinidad, which is predominantly East Indian. The story begins as the local towns prepare for a Saturday performance of the Ramleela, which is a stage version of the Hindu epic Ramayana. Walcott describes vividly with rich detail the cane fields, reminding listeners that the Indians are here because they were brought here during colonial times to be indentured laborers. Now a vibrant Indian community is entrenched, adding richness and color to the tropical landscapes of Trinidad and Tobago. As Walcott and his American friends arrive, the Ramleela cast and crew are setting up their multiplicity of deities, one of which is a huge effigy constructed of local materials like bamboo.
Briefly Walcott draws a parallel between the Ramleela and his own stage production, or reinvention and reconstruction, of Homer's Odyssey, the screenplay that helped him earn the Nobel Prize in Literature. The distinction, Walcott quickly realizes, is that his play is designed as theater, whereas the performance of Ramleela is "faith." Moreover, as he observes the actors, Walcott realizes that a sense of complete joy and spiritual unity permeates the performance, which is much more than that: it is the genuine expression of spiritual elation. The culture that he observes unfolds before him and Walcott realizes that he has projected his own beliefs, ideals, and opinions onto the Indian community. The community lives up to the name of the village in which it lives, Felicity.
Walcott urges his listeners to cease making assumptions about the places they visit, and especially about the Caribbean. A sense of awe and wonder overtakes Walcott as he observes the Indian community, which he admits has been largely marginalized. Walcott makes a bridge between the colonial history of the island and its current and conflicted manifestation: "the past is the sculpture and the present the beads of dew or...
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