Shakti - The champion composer

While the average teenager in the country is now focused on partying and feting the holidays away, the award-winning composer Shakti Rampartap, 16, prefers to stay indoors and experiment with words and rhythms.

She is the composer of several chutney songs and has brought home the Chutney Soca Monarch crown for her father Heeralal Rampartap, the reigning champion. Her compositions “Youth Rise Up” and “I Am A Trini”, won Heeralal two crowns earlier this year. Shakti took the titles of Best Composer from the National Chutney Foundation of TT in October of this year.  To crown it off she had accomplished her mission of wanting to write a winning song for her father.

She cut a lovely picture dressed in jeans and T-shirt as she walked down the stairs of her home to talk  with People. She has a country girl look, but is well spoken. On her life as a composer she says:  “I love to experiment with words. Four years ago when I entered college (Cowen Hamilton Secondary School), my father was already singing traditional chutney, I decided to put together a song that he might one day sing. But he just laughed at me when I told him I am composing a song for the stage. He told me to study hard and pass my exams so that I could get a good job and live a luxurious life. But I just love to compose songs and I now have a compilation of more than 75 songs that I have composed.”

Speaking with an air of confidence about her, she  said she hopes to record her songs on a compact disc one day. While there is a demand for chutney and soca music, Shakti said she would like to do pop and R&B for a change. Shakti has been writing songs that she thinks will work for rhythm and blues. The songs are based on love, heartbreak and romance. “Love is a beautiful topic. One that you can explore to the max. And there are many stories that surround you every day, which can be made into a song,” she pointed out.

She is happy spending 12 hours behind the computer, writing her next song. “Sometimes a song takes many days to complete but when it is done I feel richer and fulfilled as if I have accomplished something great,” she explained. When she takes time out from composing,  Shakti loves to invite her school friends over for a home party and to play video games or watch a movie.  She and mom Jassodra Rampartap spend a lot of time preparing food which she loves to serve her friends. Her favourite menus are pizza and curried crab. She also loves to listen to the latest hit songs.

On a serious noted she said with the rise in crime in the country she prefers to stay home in Brothers Road, Rio Claro. “I love to go to the malls and look at the latest fashions but I am only comfortable when I have a lot of relatives around. This way we can look out for each other,” she said. Shakti is now pursuing nine subjects with a mixture of business studies, modern studies and science. She hopes to one day own her own business  where she can market the latest fashions, gifts and women’s products. She also wants to perform on stage. “I think I have a natural knack for the stage. I mean I have been admiring my father for so long that I feel I could do what he is doing,” she said.

Shakti also enjoys dancing and modelling and is very fashion conscious. She advises that every girl should own a pair of fashionable jeans, as in this way they can get dressed in a flash. “The perfect blouse to go with the jeans, can do it every time,” she said. Life has only began for young Shakti and with that kind of determination she remains one of the talented youngsters to look out for in the future.