In his travels abroad he also wore his cultural hat. One of his more memorable trips was to India as part of a government delegation. His grandfather had come to Trinidad from the Punjab as an indentured labourer. Now Kamal was returning to the homeland in the exalted position of a cabinet minister.

He met Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and spent two days with the Nehru family at their home, where he had an opportunity to chat with Nehru’s daughter, Indira, who was to later become India’s first female prime minister. That relationship worked well in developing strong links between Trinidad and Tobago and India.

Kamal told me he was thrilled to meet the larger-than-life Nehru, who with Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party had engaged the British in a non-violent struggle for Indian Independence. But he was humbled at the Punjab legislature where 109 lawmakers gave him a standing ovation and offered him garlands, as a gesture of welcome. "I had to pause ten times to remove the garlands to allow the others to present theirs. Every member offered a garland," he remembers.