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Thirty-eight-year-old mother, senator and lawyer Jayanti Lutchmedial said she is the same person she was eight months ago when she was sworn in as an opposition senator – just a bit busier.
WMN sat down with Lutchmedial at her favourite spot, Barrister, a coffee shop opposite her office on Lord Street, San Fernando, as she discussed depression, her cooking skills, law, becoming a senator, the perfect man (using politicians as the main ingredients) and being a single mother raising a child with autism.
Growing up not being a “girly girl,” Lutchmedial, the younger of two children, loves being outdoors. She liked sports, not so much playing but watching, especially cricket, and described herself as a “cricket fanatic.”
“I am still just Jayanti from San Fernando who likes to go Debe and eat doubles and drink copious amounts of coffee,” she said, laughing when asked about her ascent to public life.
To be better able to juggle all her plates, Lutchmedial gets up as early as 2 am to begin her day. Like a creature of the night, she gets most of her work done before sunrise; then she can lahay before getting to her office at 9 am.
A former prosecutor in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), she "blames" her career in law on her parents, who both studied law. Her mother, Lorraine Lutchmedial, spent her entire legal career in the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs from 1978-2017. Her father, Ramchand Lutchmedial, is a retired member of the Industrial Court who reached the rank of vice-president before he retired.
Lutchmedial recalled being told a story she swears she can't remember, of her using the Gazette, while mispronouncing affidavit as “affidavis” in her “law office.” Her early obsession with law, backed by the insistence of her parents that she should have a professional background, propelled her to become a lawyer. Her passion for being a businesswoman was not neglected either, as she did a master's in business administration.
[caption id="attachment_885911" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial’s goal is to contribute to law that would ‘really move our society forward.’ ‘I would hope that in time…I’ll be in a better place to help more people,’ she says. - Photo by Marvin Hamilton[/caption]
While contemplating a master's in law, Lutchmedial believes constitutional law is the crème de la crème of the profession. She was introduced to it by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and fell in love. It is a mixture of academics and helpfulness that attracts her to that specific field. It is also a part of the foundation of her role in the Senate.
For all her professional qualifications, Lutchmedial laughed at her limited cooking skills.
“I could make basic, simple things but I’m not like a fancy cook. I could make pelau, I could make pasta, I could make – I was always preoccupied – macaroni and cheese and I could make like a nice Alfredo or something.
"From high school straight into university into working, it was never just part of my development. Even when I was married, we were always going out, eating out a lot, that kind of thing. We just had that type of life. I used to cook now and again.
"But it’s not something that I enjoy. Lots of people find cooking to be so therapeutic and all of that. I look at it as a task. I’d rather do laundry.”
Asked if her sada swells, she chuckled before saying “Sometimes!”
She has two doubles spots that she buys from religiously on Saturdays with her mother and daughter. One is in Debe, and the other is D’ Cross, San Fernando. For her, a great doubles is one without sweet sauce.
Lutchmedial is fully cognisant of other aspects of her life that, like her swollen sada, happen “sometimes.” For her, that is mental instability.
She says she's been through really tough times emotionally and had to seek therapy, "And everybody should have that option and shouldn’t feel bad about doing it.
"It doesn’t make me weak and it doesn’t make me crazy and it doesn’t mean that I cannot be of use to society or a bad politician. It just means that I’m human, like everybody else.”
The time she was not "the best Jayanti" came just after her daughter was born and she was recently divorced. She felt extremely stressed out and overburdened and as if she was failing at everything.
Lutchmedial is open about what she went through, on principle: "I think it’s important, especially for women, just because you’re in public life, you don’t have to pretend that you’re something that you’re not.”
So she says readily, “I’ve sought counselling in my life to help me cope. There were times when I really felt like I was not coping. I was having a really, really hard time just with the way that I felt. I was functioning.
"I was fully functional: I was going to work, I was taking care of my child. But internally I just felt like something was wrong. and I reached out to someone and it helped me immensely – and we have to stop treating these things as being so taboo.
“At the end of the day, my plate was extremely full, I felt overwhelmed and I felt like I needed someone to help me cope, and I did that and it worked wonders for me. I can’t say how much my life changed because of that.”
She thanked her support group, one friend in particular, who recognised she needed help and suggested she seek counselling.
Does she, at times, feel lonely?
"Yes. The feeling comes not from a place of “needing a spouse” but from wanting someone to share good and bad news with. Someone readily available, she said, to accept the ups and the downs life throws.
“There are just some things that it’s just all on me that I don’t have anybody to share it with...having someone who you know that would just share your burden and your joys.
"I’m building a house right now...I got my first set of furniture; the floors were completed; and I was there taking pictures and I wanted somebody to share that moment with. My daughter’s four, she doesn’t care – she just wants to jump on the couch.
“I’m doing it on my own, so it’s both your joy and your sadness that you want to be able to have somebody to share that with. I guess I do miss that and I lack that."
Though adamant that she is single and “I don’t have time to mingle,” Lutchmedial pieced together her perfect man, using her colleagues. Spoiler alert: San Fernando West MP Faris Al-Rawi does not feature.
[caption id="attachment_885910" align="alignnone" width="1024"] ‘I am still just Jayanti from San Fernando who likes to go Debe and eat doubles and drink copious amounts of coffee,’ says Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial, who has a Saturday doubles tradition with her daughter, Zivah, and her mother. - Photo by Marvin Hamilton[/caption]
“Saddam Hosein is extremely sweet. I like how Dinesh Rambally is very mild-mannered, Dr Roodal Moonilal is very intelligent, very humorous – you’re not intimidated by his intelligence because he’s so funny. David Nakhid really does have good legs: he’s a footballer, so you would expect that from him. All of the guys in the UNC are very nice.
"If I had to choose someone from the PNM side, I think Brian Manning is very handsome; he’s a handsome guy,” she said, also giving an honourable mention to Randall Mitchell, who she knew from her MBA studies.
As for herself, she believes her best trait is her kindness and her worst is overthinking. A one-word summary of herself is "simple."
Her eyes, she said, are her best physical feature. Asked about her worst, after joking that she has many, she settled on her thighs, which she found too thick. It was at that moment in the interview that she learnt the phrase “thick thighs save lives.” That did not change her mind, though.
More than being a great politician or lawyer, in the next decade Lutchmedial wants to be known as a good mother. Her greatest challenge has been carving out time for her daughter, Zivah Seeram, four. Growing up with a Presbyterian background, Lutchmedial chose the name Zivah, which in Hebrew means "radiant."
“I think she realises that I am a little more preoccupied. I am conscious of it and I try my utmost best to carve out time for her but I do think that she feels a little like, 'Ok, Mummy is not around as much.' But she’s adjusting, I can say that.”
A career public servant, Lutchmedial emphasised that her child is her greatest "customer," and she treats her like that. Whenever the issues of life seem to taking too much away from her daughter, she sheds some and makes time for her.
“Sometimes I notice her behaviour might change a little bit and I realise, 'Ok, I have been extremely busy in the last, like three or four days, and maybe that’s why,' and I say, 'Ok, everything has to just stop.'
[caption id="attachment_885909" align="alignnone" width="683"] A career public servant, Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial says her greatest customer is her daughter, Zivah, and she makes sure to carve out time from her busy schedule to spend time with her. - Photo by Marvin Hamilton[/caption]
"That’s a skill that I developed. When I get home, I put my phone down and I devote that time to her, because if I don’t do it, then I’ll always gonna be with her looking at the phone, being interrupted. I really do just carve out time. I check the time. I say, ‘It’s 4.30, I not going to pick up that phone until 6 o’clock, so I have an hour and a half where I can focus on her.’
“In ten years, my daughter would be 14 years old, so I hope I’m still able to be a good mom. That’s always number one priority. I want to be a good mother. A good mother, in terms of, not just being able to provide but having a good relationship with her. I may not have the time to dote on her the way some parents have that time, but I want to raise a good child. So that’s what I hope somebody will say about me in 14 years, not necessarily the newspapers, but somebody, that I raised a good child.”
As a self-proclaimed overly sensitive and emotional woman, her introduction to active politics came as a shock to her. She learnt from her mother not to be a member of a political party while a public servant. She only joined the UNC after leaving the DPP’s office and later the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2015.
She recalled receiving a phone call from Davendranath Tancoo, general secretary of the UNC and MP for Oropouche West, enquiring about her thoughts on becoming a senator. After a brief conversation with him, she spoke with Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and leaped at the opportunity when it was officially offered.
“Politics is very challenging, because you have to relate to such a wide range of people and you have to find a way to deliver the same message in so many different ways. Getting into politics, really for me, it was more like challenging myself to just make a difference.
"I think for years, I was very disappointed with how things looked in this country and the prospects. I always say that when people complain in other areas, like whether it is work or family or whatever, I said that you can’t always complain, you have to get up and do something. So that was just me taking my own advice, but on a national level.”
In the next ten years, she hopes to be in Parliament, in some capacity, contributing to law that would “really move our society forward.”
“I would like to perhaps be in a position to help poor people...When you’re involved in politics and political parties, you touch base with the grassroots a lot, and you see sometimes the things that you’re insulated from and there’s still a lot of poverty and still a lot of suffering in this country. I would hope that in time…I’ll be in a better place to help more people. That’s what I would want to do.”
 
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