Pundit: We have failed; society has fallen short

SEEMA SOOKDEO was inconsolable yesterday as she sat near the casket with the body of her 18-year-old brother Shivanand, who three days ago, was fatally stabbed while defending her from by her 14-year-old abusive boyfriend. Seema cried uncontrollably as she witnessed the final rites being performed on Shivanand’s body in a Hindu ceremony at their home at Dow Village, California. Mere hours before the funeral, her former boyfriend appeared before a Couva magistrate, charged with Shivanand’s murder. Pundit Mookram Sirju told mourners, “This young man lying before us, all of us have to take responsibility for his death. All of us have failed. What are we doing? Society has fallen short. We cannot deal with our problems.” The murder accused lives two blocks away from the Sookdeo’s home.

Pundit Sirju, who is the public relations officer of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), urged the mourning community to live peacefully with their neighbours. “For simple pettiness, neighbours are not speaking to each other. If you cannot speak to your neighbour you cannot go to Heaven because in Heaven you have to talk to everyone.  God does not want backbiting,” the pundit said. He called on the mourners to put aside differences and focus on saving the community and children. “There are lots of youths in the Couva/Claxton Bay area involved in all kinds of wrong behaviour. Are we as elders in the community doing anything?

Or are we ready to blame someone else for these problems? This is a sad day. The parents are hurting, the sisters are hurting. Friends and acquaintances are hurting. The simple message is where do we go from here?” Tears streamed down the faces of Shivanand’s two sisters, Seema and Trishma,  and five-year-old brother Vikash, as they performed the Aarti (Hindu prayers) on the deceased. As the pundit performed the final rituals before leaving the home and was about to close the casket, Shivanand’s mother Kathleen cried out in grief as she reached out and held on to his face. She eventually collapsed. As the casket was taken away to the Waterloo Cremation site, Trishma, Seema and Vikash held on to each other as they bid a tearful goodbye to their elder brother.