My name is Gita Pooran and I’m a clerk in a DVD shop.
I’m from Tacarigua, from a very poor family and it was tough. I had six brothers and one sister. Back in those days, big families were hard to provide for; I may not look it, but childhood was a while (ago for me). I was 50 last month.
I don’t have any kids. Maybe that’s why I don’t look (my age)! It just didn’t work out that way and it never bothered me because I had a lot of nephews and nieces. I wasn’t missing anything. But everybody get big now and gone their way.
My mom had to go out there to provide for us. She did gardening. That’s the way she brought up her kids.
My father used to drink A LOT of alcohol! He used to drink out all his money sometimes. My mother would be waiting for money to go to market and there would be none. Two or three of my older brothers had to leave school and find work to help my mother provide for us, the smaller ones. And they were very bright in school, could have been something great. But that’s how life was. Not easy.
I had a lot of offers when I was growing up but I was never really interested and never married. Maybe it’s because I saw how my mom was treated. But I have a boyfriend. But I don’t give names.
I feel it for children when I see them suffering. Sometimes I tell myself, “It can’t have a God and things like this going on!” But then, old people will say, “The Lord is testing your faith.” Well, he really-really testing us, boy!
I wonder why people make children in the first place, when they have them all about the place like that. You would think they might have one, and learn from that, you could understand that. But life is tough, yes, for those children.
It have a lot of illegals in Trinidad. Anywhere you turn, you see Jamaicans, Guyanese. And a lot of them are doing the bad things in the country. But, then again, if you go to the States you meet a lot of illegals there, too.
I don’t go dancing or partying. I’m not a party girl. Maybe when I was much younger. I rather go for a drive on the beach.
I’ve been to New York couple times. I like the shopping but not the cold.
I like a lot of healthy foods, like salads. I prepare my own meals for lunch and breakfast and bring it to work. But I do eat KFC sometimes!
I don’t go to the salon very often. I colour and style my own hair. Same thing they could do and charge you a lot of money, I could do on my own.
Strange enough: I was born on a Carnival Monday, but I never take part in Carnival! I had brothers who used to play mas but I can’t take the sun; and I get tired fast.
Ever since I started working in a DVD store, I love movies. I could watch just about any one I want. Sometimes I get fed-up and all. But I can’t tell you the last time I watched a whole movie from beginning to ending. I’ll put a movie on at work and look at it in-between, while working, just grasp the storyline.
You could rent movies but most people buy. Men like action-adventure movies and ladies more like love stories and dramas.
There’s no “best” part of the job: everything is important. But I like meeting different people. The bad side is business has dropped a lot, since guys are on the street selling. But people come to us for good copies.
Crime in Trinidad is really bad and the safety of the people is a real worry. It bothers me a lot.
Trinis are friendly people and you must know them from the way they speak.
Trinidad and Tobago is my roots and is where I belong. I don’t think I could live anywhere else!
• Read a longer version of this feature at www.BCRaw.com