All along the three Guianas, where Calypso meets Mahabharat under starburst skies

You know how in a certain movie the hills are alive with the sound of music? In Georgetown, capital of Guyana, it's the seawall that comes alive with the blasting sound of soca and chutney soca (which blends Indian folk music with Caribbean calypso and soca) music at sundown. Meant to protect the city from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, this is where the party happens at night.

Each shack has its own sound system, deliriously competing for attention, with dancing going on until the early hours. As with the marinated meat on barbeque, the music is peppered with history and influences from the Caribbean to West Africa and India. In the Guianas - the region in north-eastern South America that comprises the 'three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana--there's no avoiding this wherever one goes. The idea was to follow the coastal route from Georgetown via Suriname and then on to French Guiana to see how the Guianas would change from formerly British to formerly Dutch territory to a territory that's still part of France.

In the mid-1990s, I spent half a year in Suriname as part of a degree in international management. So, this was a place I was a little familiar with. The Surinamese were a well-known diasporic community in the Netherlands. But I knew precious little about them. Besides a Creole population descended from formerly enslaved Africans, there were also significant numbers of Javanese and 'Hindustani' whose elders had come as indentured labourers. For some reason, I had never gotten around to visiting Suriname's neighbours. Somehow, it felt that now was the time to set this right.


Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are flanked by what was once thought of as Portuguese Guiana in Brazil and Spanish Guiana in Venezuela. A border dispute that continues to this day means that from the moment one heads in the direction of the Essequibo River, giant billboards inform you that it belongs to Guyana.

Yet, before the British, the Essequibo was a Dutch colony, together with others established at Berbice and Demerara. Driving in the direction of the Corentyne river, which forms the border with Suriname, many towns and villages along the way still carry the names of former Dutch plantations.

In contrast to Guyana, Suriname started out as British before it became Dutch, a weird twist somewhat lost to history. Reaching Paramaribo always reminds me of how, once, travelling with a group of friends, we had approached the city at nightfall - a spectacle of lights unfolding in the distance. For hours, all we had seen was dense foliage of tropical rainforest, and a road of red earth filled with potholes that the ramshackle truck we were driving had had enough of. Regularly breaking down, we were covered in mud and in dire need of a shower.

The lights we had seen in the distance were emanating from Diwali lamps, in a neighbourhood dominated by 'Hindustanis' who owned the land nearby. One of my colleagues at the time lived there - a tiny woman with the most commanding voice, which she mainly used to order the boys around in the warehouse.

On Wednesday mornings, however, she would regale us with the latest episode of the 1980s Mahabharat TV series broadcast the previous evening. Although she knew the story by heart, she still couldn't get over Bhisma's bed of arrows, the fate of Draupadi, and that of Karna--played by the late Pankaj Dheer, for whom she felt a particular passion.

From Suriname, we continued our journey towards the Moroni river, where we crossed over into French Guiana, stopping by the European Space Centre in Kourou, from where missions into space continue to be launched. Having once spent a week on a boat on the river, we had found the night sky ablaze with the majesty of the Milky Way - a delirious symphony of scattered stardust.

It had compelled us to fantasise about a rocket lifting off and finding out what lay beyond, the adventure that awaited. Thirty years on, I'm still discovering a universe out there, the lure of travel never having abated.