THESE days, Rajpaul Baljit is taking things one step at a time, and he is very grateful for the support of his wife, Parbattie Ramlall, who, despite being in a wheelchair, does all the housework and cooking since he is stricken with multiple ailments.

The 76-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that his wife is in a wheelchair due to a pinched nerve but takes care of the home and ensures everything is in order despite challenges.

He reported that he is the father of two and they have four grandchildren and keep a lovely, clean home and surroundings.

Baljit, a retired sugar worker, has diabetes, kidney stones, hypertension and glaucoma in both eyes, and although he has to do surgery for his eyes, he has declined.

“Honestly, I am scared to go and do surgery for glaucoma because I had a friend that did it and he was not well after that and he died three years after,” he said.

Being elderly, Baljit related that he will continue to live with his sickness and he is using some home remedies and so far, he is doing better in terms of his eyesight and he can see to sign his name.

Baljit reported that he has a lot to be thankful for, especially his wife, who is his foundation and she remains by his side even now and she provides constant moral support.

He has been living at Portuguese Quarters Village, Port Mourant, for the past 20 years, and the house he occupies belonged to his wife’s parents, a roadside spot.

“Living at a roadside property is convenient, but the disadvantages outshine the advantages because you get in trouble for things that doesn’t concern you and you are at risk,” he explained.

Many bars, hotels and other nightspots play loud music way into the wee hours of the morning and that is most disturbing for this elder, who said he has to put up with it since nothing can be done.

“At nights, a lot of things happen around here, people dump garbage in the canal, the loud music, and you cannot say anything because you are threatened and then there is the drug addicts that roam the village, picking the mangoes off the trees and pelting the dog,” Baljit said.

He is originally from a nearby village in Port Mourant catchment named Ankerville, and he moved to his in-law’s place after marriage.

Baljit was a cane harvester at different sugar estates from 1965 to 2006 and even worked at Wales Sugar Estate for some time.
He reminisced that, in those days, they had little but life was much more fulfilling in terms of family time and simpler with fewer complications.

Baljit added that in the earlies, they used to cook on the outdoor fireside and they would wake up early to cut up wood and cook to take their food to work, riding their bicycles or utilising the train.

He related that in the ‘black and white’ days, Port Mourant was a very clean place managed by the masters of the sugar plantation and they had mules they walked the grounds with to ensure the place was spotless and they lived in Manager’s Compound.

The senior citizen stated that he enjoyed horse racing at the Port Mourant Race Course, the flattest and biggest racecourse in those days and it was a place of recreation and it was a big deal for them in those days.

Baljit reported that he believes that life was better back then in the 1970s. Even though they worked for a little, it was sufficient and they made do with whatever was in the environment and never went hungry due to the fertile soil composition we have here in Guyana.

As a young man growing up in Ankerville, Port Mourant, he told the Pepperpot Magazine that Port Mourant was a place of activities just like today but the sugar factory and other things of indentureship were replaced with modern ones and today they are a central hub of businesses.

‘Uncle Tex’, as Baljit is better known, has a lovely home, a colonial-style house which they maintained over the years with a wooden swinger, a signature of Corentyne is under the house for that added comfort and it provides a place to sit and relax after a long day of work and chores.

Baljit’s yard has a lot of trees, plants, flowers and fruit trees, two big mango trees that have ripe mangoes, an attraction to drug addicts.

“At my age, I just want to live out my time without worries to have a peaceful time and I hope it can happen,” he said.