'My hair is my treasure'

Neisha ‘Pooja’ Ramcharitar, 20, of Ragbir Trace, Debe, is a walking wonder wherever she goes. Her natural hair is 6ft 8 inches long. That is 18 inches on the ground. The beautiful girl not only creates a stir with her hair but she is an award-winning East Indian dancer and model. The dimpled-faced beauty has also excelled in the academic field and is now working as an assistant optician — although she wanted to get into her own business, marketing fashions and other oriental items. Speaking from her home, Pooja (as she is fondly called by her mother Basmatie Ramcharitar and other relatives) said that she always loved the look of long hair and this is why she was never interested in trimming and fashioning her hair in a modern style. She got off her chair and took her long hair and rolled it up to the back of her neck in a simple bun. Her hands expertly handled the long flowing strands of hair when she brought it all together. She noted hairstyles add to a woman’s beauty. “I was never tempted to cut my hair. I just love how it flowed to the ground and as the days and weeks go by I would look forward to grooming and styling my hair. It is like my treasure,” she said. While attending the Barrackpore Senior Comprehensive school, her friends made comments like, “I can never stand long hair,” and “you have to get with the times Neisha,” but this did not deter her from keeping her long hair. “Even if I wanted to cut it, I couldn’t. Not after taking care of it for so long,” she admitted.

Talking about her life on stage, she said that at age five she was already preparing dance numbers for the stage. She first did a performance in Arima for a “hole in the heart” victim. Then she was asked to perform in a village programme organised by the Ramai Trace Hindu Temple. She has been dancing for the past 16 years, and she has been a semi-finalist of TTT’s Mastana Bahar on many occasions. Among all the dancers of the world she admires the work of Trinidad and Tobago’s dance tutor Rajkumar Krishna Persad. “He gets into the ancient rhythm of ‘Khatak’ and it is really exciting to see the dance steps that he puts together,” she said. She also admires the dances from India. She admits that she tries to emulate the stars in Bollywood films when doing her choreographing, however, she tries to add her own touch to the dance in order to give it the local flavour. 
She has also entered the Miss Naturally Fair contest and she is in the grand final competition, which will take place later on this year.   Being the only daughter to Roopchand Ramcharitar and Basmatie, Neisha remains very close to her parents. In fact her mother is responsible for designing all her costumes and selecting her jewelry for stage. “She is my friend and my manager. I cannot imagine life without her,” she said with a shy smile.

As a model she chooses the East Indian fashions that are shown in Bollywood films. “I love the way the saris are draped around the body. And today we see a lot of the pelazo pants and other three-piece outfits that are unique and different. It gives me an enormous amount of thrills to get on stage wearing these outfits,” she said. She would also like to travel to the various countries to get a first hand view of the cultures that exist out of TT.