By Mohanlall Suelall
One of the leading principles in Bhagwanlall Ramlagan’s life is the ability to forgive people despite their shortcomings. He, however, expects those who are pardoned to be somewhat remorseful, but he got a rude awakening a few weeks ago.
On November 20, 2019, Ramlagan was walking along Anna Regina Market Street in the Pomeroon-Supenaam region when he was hit from the back by a young man who was riding his motorcycle in a reckless manner. The 67-year-old recalled that all he felt was a heaviness on his back and then he fell face down onto the pavement.
He lost consciousness. When Ramlagan regained consciousness, he was already being transported to the Suddie Hospital on the Essequibo Coast, where he was treated and later sent away.
The youthful rider of the motorcycle was apparently blazing his way through the busy market area when he lost control of his bike and crashed into the Councillor. Ramlagan never expected that he would have been in an accident that would leave him in pain to this day.
The motorcyclist was reportedly not wearing any safety gear, also putting himself at risk for serious injuries as well.
Ramlagan, popularly referred to as “Haribol”, because of his religious beliefs, said that he was following a spiritual path, so he decided that forgiveness was the right thing to do. Although the young man did not render any assistance to him or even apologised for crashing into the elderly man, he was forgiven. With no strings attached to that forgiveness, Ramlagan said he later learnt that the young man has since paid for the damage he caused to the stalls at the market, but has yet to reach out to him to check to see how he is doing.
He said that he suffered injuries to his back, knees and other parts of his body and could not have worked for more than two weeks. The elderly man is still in pain, but because of religious teachings that he should show mercy to all of God’s creation, he did not report the matter to the Police. He wanted to meet the young man personally and give him some good words of advice so as to be more careful on the roadways, but he was not fortunate because the young man did not make contact with him after the accident.
Ramlagan said that he was very much concerned about the many road accidents and fatalities and was calling on drivers to apply the 5 ‘Cs’ when driving, especially at this time of the year. He is calling on them to be extra careful when driving and also insisted that drivers stop speeding and not drink and drive.
He noted that while there were some reckless drivers, there were also some careless pedestrians who did not care how they used the roads. He urged all road users to be careful especially during the holiday season. He said that Christmas was a time of sharing and loving and he hoped that drivers would do the right thing to show love and compassion to the other road users by driving carefully, to avoid causing grief, sadness, and pain to themselves, families, friends, neighbours and the general public.
