So we spent Thanksgiving at my Uncle home (from my Indian side). He gave me this book, The Guyana Story, by Odeen Ishmael because he knows I recently develop an interest in Guyana. I read a few chapters already, going back to “El Dorado” and the Dutch arrival. It’s a big arse book…about 688 pages. It’s a history book, nonetheless, easy reading. The book looks at Guyana chronologically, but the book lacks analysis of the historical facts…for me history should be analytical, not chronological. But it’s a good start for anyone interested in a basic history of Guyana.
I told him about GNI and some of you knuckleheads here. He says I should never share any personal information on any website because placing personal information opens you up to hackers everywhere.
Someone hacked into his account and stole $50,000 from his account. He was able to get it back, but it took a good 5 months for the bank to complete the investigative process. He is lucky.
He shared some stories with me…not sure how much of this is true.
Story 1:He says Indos in the village in Guyana used a "tooth brush" called “backstage” to brush their teeth in the old days. The villagers would put coal on the brush and use it as toothpaste. This sounds like BS, but I heard this story before. It did not do much good for my uncle since he is short of more than a few teeth.
Story 2: My uncle used to catch a fish called hassar. Apparently, the fish (“falls from the sky”) when it rains a lot. The fish would build a water nest. When my uncle sees the nest, they would take a stick and disturb the water around the nest. The excited hassar would then jump 2 feet into the air and his buddy would catch it in mid air. They would then put their hands under the nest and take the eggs that were located under the nest. They cooked the fish, but fried the eggs.
Story 3: A lot of Guyanese, mostly Indos when they come to America they hit the “bright lights” and act all upright and sophisticated. They change their names and polish their teeth. Some take out the gold in their teeth and use whitener. These same people go so far to deny their Guyanese background because they are ashamed of where they came from. This seems to like a trend among Indos. He gave me a few examples of name change:
Jeewan becomes Jerry Latchman becomes Larry Eshwar becomes Eli He told me even the Indo leader, Jagan changed his name to “Beret” so he could fit in with Afros in America
So I am guessing Winston became Churchill, Iguana was Iguadala and Ronan was Rohaman 
