INGRATITUDE is considered the worst of vices; but it is a recurring phenomenon in the human dynamic and has caused much angst and grief in the sphere of societal existence.

But the ingratitude repaid to the Nandkishore family by neighbours whose lives they had once saved makes one question the adage of being one’s brother’s keeper in the human family.

In February of 2012 the country was riveted by the horrifying news of the Dharamdatt family’s near-escape from death after being poisoned by the 14-year-old daughter of the family.
Chaitram Dharamdat, also called Satesh, who was then seventeen years old, and the family patriarch Sukhdeo, then 48, were the worst affected and were hospitalised for several weeks before they recovered after the five family members from a Mahaica household was poisoned after eating a meal of hassar curry had been the worst affected by the poisoning. They had both been warded at the Male Medical Ward after being transferred from the Intensive Care Unit,

The father and son, along with Sukdeo’s wife Nandranie, 40, and two daughters – Hamwantie, 15, and Bhumwanteshar, 13, also called Shoma, all fell ill at their Bloom Garden home at Mahaica Creek after they had eaten the meal, which another family later claimed she had laced with a deadly pesticide. The 14-year-old who had made that claim did not partake of the meal; neither did an 18-year-old brother, who was at the time away from the home.

While visiting her family in hospital two Saturdays ago, the teen was arrested and subsequently charged with attempted murder, after police had carried out a thorough investigation. She appeared in the Mahaica Magistrate’s Court the following Tuesday and was remanded to the Juvenile Detention Centre. She remained at the Sophia School for Juvenile Offenders until her next court appearance in April.

The mother wept bitterly on learning that the teen had been charged with attempted murder, and the day before he was discharged from hospital her father said he had forgiven her for the crime committed against his family.
On Wednesday, this newspaper reported that a father and his two sons had been held for questioning into a Mahaica Creek bloodbath.
According to the news report: “… three men are in police custody, assisting with investigations into the death of 26-year-old Suresh Nandkishore, called ‘Ravo’, of Handsome Tree, Mahaica, following an altercation with neighbours over land. Also under investigation is the wounding of Suresh’s father, 52-year-old Gopaul Nandkishore, called ‘Jai; and his brother, 31-year-old Parmanand Nandkishore, called ‘Davo’, all of the same Handsome Tree, Mahaica.”
This murderous rampage occurred over a years-long land dispute between neighbours, whereby the courts had resolved the matter by ruling in favour of the Nandkishore family.
The report continued: “According to the police, Suresh, who was severely beaten about the body, was pronounced dead on arrival (DOA) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). His father, they say, was also beaten about the body and hospitalised, while his brother and only sibling, ‘Davo’, was chopped on his left hand. He too, the police said yesterday, has been admitted to hospital.
“Reports are that the suspects, said to be a father and two sons, are currently in detention, one at the Cove and John Police Station, and the other two at the Mahaica Police Station. Ironically, it was the said ‘Davo’ who reportedly saved the trio from certain death three years ago by rushing them (and other family members) to hospital after a 14-year-old relative of theirs fed them poison-laced hassar curry.”

This publication essayed the question: “Did ‘Davo’ Nandkishsore save the family whose lives were at stake three years ago, just so they could subsequently kill his younger brother, and seriously threaten the lives of he and his father?”
Davo, according to the news item in this newspaper, “was treated at the Mahaicony Cottage Hospital and sent home late Tuesday, only to suffer a relapse and had to be rushed to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department of the GPHC, where he remained warded up until yesterday.
And contrary to what the police reported, ‘Davo’ was not only chopped on the hand, but also to the head, face, back, and chest. A relative who witnessed the state he was in when he was taken out of Mahaica Creek, said the men brutally chopped him about the body, and beat him with a heavy piece of wood. “They took the wood and punched him in every cut they made on his body,” the relative said, adding: “They ain’t got a part of he body where blood was not flowing.”
The relative said that when ‘Davo’ found he could not take any more blows, he threw himself to the ground and pretended to be dead. It was then that they redirected their energies and attention to his father.
According to doctors at the GPHC, the dad has a 50/50 chance of recovery, as he has not, since admittance, regained consciousness, and is being monitored round-the-clock at the A&E Unit. A computed tomography (CAT – Scan) done on him has determined that he suffered severe brain injury.
‘Davo’ said from where he was, he could hear the father telling his sons, “We gon wipe dem out.” The men allegedly beat ‘Jai’ mercilessly with a plank until he jumped into a trench to escape the beating. And Suresh, who was much easier to overpower by the seemingly bloodthirsty trio, was callously chopped until he dropped dead. A Chartered Accountant by profession, he pursued his studies in the US.”
If the Nandkishores had left that family to die from poisoned food served to them by their own family member, whom they “forgave”, they would not have in turn have to mourn the murder of their son and brother; and have to live with enduring memories of pain and loss.
The Bible warns: “The wages of sin is death.” In this instance the wages of goodness was death, of hopes, of dreams, of happiness, of life; because of supreme ingratitude – the worst of vices.
Mother Teresa once said: “The good you do may be forgotten today: Do good anyway… For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”