Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Rakesh “Ron­nie” Ra­goo­nanan’s life was de­fined by two wheels—first the bi­cy­cle, and lat­er, the mo­tor­cy­cle. At 50, he had built a rep­u­ta­tion as a cy­clist, coach, and men­tor, yet it was his late-found love for trail rid­ing that claimed his life on Sep­tem­ber 13.

For those who knew him, Ra­goo­nanan’s sto­ry be­gan much ear­li­er. His cousin, Rishi Mun­gal, who lives just a stone’s throw away at De­onar­ine Junc­tion, Mc Bean, Cou­va, re­mem­bers a boy who was in­sep­a­ra­ble from his bi­cy­cle.

“Ron­nie was one of the founders of the Cen­tral Spokes Cy­cling Club,” Mun­gal re­called.

“He was very pas­sion­ate about cy­cling and swim­ming. He made a name for him­self with­in the cy­cling fra­ter­ni­ty. I re­mem­ber Ron­nie and Club mem­bers go­ing on long rides—leav­ing Val­sayn and head­ing all the way to Ma­yaro, Rio Claro, and back.”

Cy­cling kept him fit, and swim­ming be­came an­oth­er pas­sion. What be­gan as fa­ther-daugh­ter bond­ing ses­sions in the pool grew in­to coach­ing. On the very morn­ing of the tragedy, Ra­goo­nanan and his youngest daugh­ter had com­plet­ed a 3K open-wa­ter swim in Ch­aguara­mas.

Mun­gal said his cousin’s love for bi­cy­cles dat­ed back to his teens. “He was a bi­cy­cle man from young, and as he met more peo­ple with sim­i­lar in­ter­ests, it just took off from there,” he ex­plained.

But along­side the bi­cy­cle was an­oth­er ma­chine that fas­ci­nat­ed Ra­goo­nanan—the mo­tor­cy­cle. Both cousins shared that thrill, though Ra­goo­nanan had nev­er ex­pe­ri­enced any se­ri­ous mishaps on the road. Re­cent­ly, how­ev­er, his in­ter­est shift­ed.

“About two or three weeks ago he start­ed look­ing for an off-road mo­tor­cy­cle—what we call a trail bike,” Mun­gal said.

“He told me he didn’t want to ride on the roads any­more but want­ed to take up trail rid­ing. Some­body con­nect­ed him with a man in the Cal­cut­ta area sell­ing a 650cc trail bike. I didn’t even know he had bought it. It was on­ly af­ter the ac­ci­dent I found out. He bought it on Fri­day and crashed on Sat­ur­day.”

The news has left the fam­i­ly reel­ing. “We all be­lieve it’s a bad dream. When I woke up this morn­ing, I hoped it was just a dream I was dream­ing,” Mun­gal said qui­et­ly.

Trib­utes have since poured in, in­clud­ing from Sports Min­is­ter Phillip Watts, who praised Ra­goo­nanan’s con­tri­bu­tion to sport.

His fu­ner­al will take place to­mor­row, be­gin­ning at the fam­i­ly’s Mc Bean home and pro­ceed­ing to the Wa­ter­loo Cre­ma­tion site.