Creating Ripples with Words

Born in Guyana, Raywat Deonandan moved to Canada when he was just two years old. His parents formed the link, between Guyana and India. "The indentured slaves who were brought to Guyana by the British, never felt that they were part of the country. They wanted to go back. Their thought that 'one day you are going home', remained alive," says Raywat.

Raywat Deonandan has never believed in defining his expanse. He has aspired to be an astronaut. However, his aspirations have taken him farther than the realms of space and time. He is an avid author and writer, an active epidemiologist, a lecturer, a research scholar and essentially a man of science.

Often people of science see the beauty in things, but find it hard to phrase the words. For Raywat, however, the words have been a living, breathing presence since he was in his early teens.

Sweet Like Salt Water his first collection of short stories, published by Toronto's TSAR publications appeared in print last year and has created ripples since then. The search for a connection is deep rooted in Sweet Like Salt Water and so is the quest for identity.

Raywat's stories and articles have appeared in magazines, newspapers and journals in Canada, United States, England, New Zealand and translated in Japan and China. Raywat was awarded two Hart House Literary Prizes at the University of Toronto and First Prize in the 1995 Canadian Author's Association National Student Literary Competition. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from The University of Western Ontario.

Born in Guyana, Raywat moved to Canada when he was just two years old. His parents formed the link, between Guyana and India. "The indentured slaves who were brought to Guyana by the British, never felt that they were part of the country. They wanted to go back. Their thought that 'one day you are going home', remained alive," says Raywat.

The quest for identity has been Raywat's own in many ways and writing Sweet Like Salt Water, a personal experience. He visited Guyana as a child and traveled to India a few years ago but in the effort to find the sameness, he realized the difference. "I am Canadian," he says, "You know when you are away, when you are looking too hard to find a connection, often you don't find one."

From The Weekly Voice