Yankarran’s widow calls for promised assistance

In an interview with Newsday yesterday at Yankarran Avenue, Couva home, Yankarran’s widow, Ananda said after the passing of her husband she spoke with Gadsby- Dolly on the telephone and she assured her that she would visit and assist financially.

She said to date she has not received the promised assistance.

“The opposition MPs Dr Roodal Moonilal and Rudranath Indarsingh took care of a lot of the expenses but I still have outstanding bills from the funeral,” Ananda said, adding that prior to the passing of her husband she had to deal with huge medical bills. “This is why I could not meet the cost of such a huge funeral.” Ananda said.

Apart from dealing with the grief of losing her husband, she said she had to contend with disrespect from the National Carnival Commission (NCC) when they chose to honour him at the recent Dimanche Gras show.

“First of all I did not get an invitation but I saw my step-daughter at the function. While it is okay for her to represent her father, I was totally left out of the proceedings,” she said adding that the organisers mistakenly played a song by his brother Rakesh Yankarran instead of him (Anand) and showed a photo of Rakesh with Anand’s name on it.

She said while she is thankful for the gesture to honour her late husband, they got it totally mixed up. She is calling for an apology from the NCC over this matter. She said she has since forwarded a letter to NCC’s Chairman Kenny De Silva on this matter.

Ananda said since her husband’s passing she has been holding monthly prayer meetings at her home. Described as a cultural icon, Anand died on January 2 after suffering a heart attack.

He had been ailing for some time after suffering a stroke in 2008 in New York where he had migrated. Anand was the son of another singing legend Isaac Yankarran. He rose to fame with his song Nanda Baba more than two decades ago.

Ananda said she met her husband in 2000 when he migrated to New York. While in North America she said he received great success with his singing career as he was in demand at almost every local function. “We lived in a dream home and we had everything when he fell ill with a stroke.” However, he wanted to return to his homeland and live the rest of his life.

Despite his illness, he released several hits among them a traditional classical song, Jho Jho.

Ananda says she will be looking at ways in which to showcase the belongings and trophies of her late husband.