Bike-ambulance Dada renders service despite Corona threat
Darjeeling: More than 30 years ago Karimul Haque had helplessly watched his mother die. He could not arrange for an ambulance to take her to a hospital. 30 years down the line, on Monday, he received a phone call from a person requesting for help to arrange for an ambulance to carry that person's dead mother home.
Gyaneshwari Rai an octogenarian was a resident of Annandapur village under the Rajdanga Gram Panchayat in the Jalpaiguri district. Recently she had gone to visit her daughter at Uttar Khalpara under Kranti Gram Panchayat, around 12 km away.
Gyaneshwari was a chronic asthmatic patient. On Monday at around 9 am she passed away in her daughter's house.
Her sons were informed. For the last rites the dead body had to be taken back to Anandapur.
"I received a call from Sunil Rai. He told me that his mother had expired at his sister's house but he could not arrange for an ambulance or any other vehicle to bring her body back. Owing to Covid-19 scare no one was willing. He asked me to help," stated Haque talking to Millennium Post. Incidentally Padma Shri Karimul Haque, popular as "Bike Ambulance Dada" in Kranti has till date saved more than 4000 patients in around 20 villages. He runs a motorbike ambulance service, reaching patients to hospitals absolutely free of cost.
"I could not sit idle hearing Sunil's plight. I told them that if they do not have any problems in the dead body being carried back in his motorbike sidecar, then he would happily help. The family told me that it was no issue at all. We brought the body back to her village in the motorbike ambulance. The family then performed her last rites. I am glad that I could be of assistance," added Haque.
Incidents such as these are a routine affair for Karimul ever since he had decided to help people reach hospitals more than 30 years ago.
With his mother's death, Haque had made up his mind to serve the villages, tea gardens and forest villages dotting the area he lives in, by providing free service to the sick by reaching them to hospitals. In 2017 he was awarded the Padma Shri for his service to the marginalised. "Helping people who are in distress. Standing by people during crisis is the greatest virtue. There is no religion above humanity," said Haque.
