The aural palette includes saxophones and trumpets, guitars and keyboards, and the harmonium, a type of squeeze-box used in India mainly to reiterate the melodic line. Chutney expresses the dreams and the distress of Indo-Caribbeans' dislocation. It mixes the language of their Indian heritage with the rhythms of their Caribbean past and their American future. Chutney songs often switch between creolized English and the Bhojpuri language of northern India in the same verse, though the Bhojpuri is often unrecognizable to most Indians and incomprehensible to most Indo-Caribbeans. This is not to suggest that chutney lyrics are entirely inconsequential.
Some songs poke fun at social patterns like arranged marriages and caste rivalry.
Other lyrics describe the migration from India. About the Author Naresh Fernandes recently graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He works for the Associated Press and the Times of India in Bombay.