A teenage dental assistant of Alness Village, Corentyne, drowned on Sunday afternoon while on a swimming trip with friends.
Dead is Gopal Govindan, also known as ‘Raj,’ 19, of Lot 112 Alness Village, Corentyne.
His father, Arjune Govindan, 46, told Stabroek News that his son would regularly go to the Alness foreshore to swim. He noted that on Sunday afternoon, his son left home with four of his friends, who reside in the same village, on a swimming trip. “They does normally go out at the beach side. He leave about 2 to go with some friends them,” the teen’s father said. “Sometimes they go, they cook, have a nice time, bathe and come back,” he added.
The man noted that Gopal said he would return around 4.30 pm. “But after 4 one a he friend come call at the gate and tell me say Gopal gone down under the water and can’t come out,” the father said as he broke into tears and shook his head in disbelief at his son’s demise. “My wife and me drive out there and there was a lot of people, people start come in, but there was nothing we can do, the water was so high… it was so deep we had to stop and wait till the water go down,” he added.
The senior Govindan then related that with a lot of assistance from villagers, they went in and searched but did not find Gopal. He said they then decided to walk along the shore and they eventually found his body at Manchester.
According to the father, his son’s body was discovered about a mile and a half away from where he was swimming. He noted that when he saw the body, his son was bleeding from the ears, but there were no other marks on his body. “We found him with his face down, there [were] no marks of violence, but I noticed the ears bleeding… The police said that’s normal for a drowning person,” he added.
Arjune pointed out that Gopal and his friends were not strong swimmers. “Just lil bit he can swim, I don’t think none of them is good swimmers,” he said.
The grieving father described his son as being “lovely” and “joyful,” while noting that he was close with him as he is with all of his children.
Govindan was a dental assistant at his uncle’s dental lab in Alness Village. His father said he started the job shortly after graduating from the Bush Lot Secondary School. It was a job he was said to have loved, as he got to work alongside his uncle and older brother, who is also employed at the dental lab.
Gopal is survived by his parents as well as two brothers and a sister.
