THE tragedy of 19-year-old Chetram Baljit’s self-induced death, occasioned after he had ingested a poisonous liquid which he had purchased over the counter at a business place in New Amsterdam, has been devastating to his family members, who are now wondering if they could have done something to prevent him from turning to suicide.Baljit, of Lot 17 Goed Bananen Land, East Canje Berbice, had been employed as a weeder at the Rose Hall Sugar Estate in Berbice. His mother, Latchmee Persaud, told the Guyana Chronicle that, upon her questioning, Baljit had informed her that he had purchased the deadly liquid earlier on Monday. She said the teen had told her, “Mammy, my life is confused. Mammy, I love you. Mammy I drink poison, me go dead.”

As Persaud recounted the moments leading up to her son’s death, she confessed that neither she nor her husband had ever believed that their son would have been a victim of suicide.

“My sister Gaitree was celebrating her birthday. My son was there. He ate (food) and drank a beer. I returned home to have a bath before returning to the celebrations. The yard in which my sister lives has two houses. My daughter stopped at the front house and I proceeded to the back. As I was passing, my son rushed out of the outhouse, crying: ‘Mammy, I drink poison, me go dead’, before falling at my feet.”

The distraught woman said she screamed for her sister and husband, and together they took the unconscious youth to the front house, where he vomited. He was afterwards taken to the New Amsterdam hospital where, despite medical intervention, he succumbed 10 minutes later, whilst still clutching the hands of his mother.

Persaud said her son had been popular and had lots of friends. She has denied that his premature death resulted from the family objecting to his relationship with a much older woman.

“He say he confused. Me seh who you want me gon give you. Me never know he woulda dead! Ow me son. Me loving son,” wailed the mother in the local dialect after she had been questioned by this reporter.

Baljit’s only sibling, Omwattie Baljit, recalled that she had not attended the New Amsterdam Technical Institute on Monday because she was unwell. She said she did not know it would have been the final day she would have spent with her brother.

She said she had requested that he pick up the leaves which had fallen from the trees in the yard.
“It was during this period that he started to talk about death. He told me that if he died before me, I must have the songs ‘Gone Away’, ‘Fallen Soldier’ along with an Indian song played as a tribute on television. He told me that he was not joking and that he was serious. However, he stopped talking about death after I threatened to tell mummy.”

In retrospect, Omwattie noted that suicide was not a choice for her brother. “He should have sought counselling if the problem was too much. My parents are now helpless, they cannot do anything. I have to be strong for all of us,” the 18-year-old Omwattie said as she forced herself to grin.

Baljit’s father Rakesh Baljit, in deep anguish, said he did not get to talk to his son on Monday, as he had left to graze the family’s cows. “I don’t know if he would have told me anything. I did not believe that my son had died, but I now believe, after seeing him in the mortuary. I can’t take this!” he cried.

Chetram Baljit, also called ‘Yudesh’ and ‘Fletcher’, will be buried tomorrow at the Reliance Cemetery, a village some distance away from his home village.

(By Jeune Bailey Vankeric)