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All news channels kept displaying this news….
Aruna Shanbaug… Who became famous as the rape victim in coma.. Was it a reason to be famous??!! I shudder at the thought..
A year ago on the television series called Crime patrol, they had shown her story. I vaguely remembered reading about her long back, so I settled to watch the entire series.. The story goes such… (yes the sad life of one person has just reduced to a story to be told and retold)
Aruna Shanbaug was a young vibrant happy go lucky young woman in her early 20s who had left her native in Karnataka to pursue her dreams of becoming a nurse that to in India, in the 70s..a very rare phenomenon then for some one from a village to go ahead and accomplish her dreams. She started her work as a junior nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.
She was engaged to a young doctor and was soon to be married to him. Aruna being the firebrand and outspoken girl that she was had earlier reprimanded a sweeper by name Sohanlal, so in order to avenge his insult when he found her alone, after the days duty, caught her unaware, as Aruna who had gone to change,(there were no duty doctors rooms or nurses stations in those days I guess), so she found herself being gagged and raped brutally, worst of all the monster that he was chained her with a dogs chain so that she couldn’t move and hence cut off the oxygen supply to her brain and rendered her comatosed for life.
This might sound like any other rape story, but just as women put yourself in her shoes and feel what I felt while watching it being enacted on TV.
A young woman with hopes and dreams in her eyes, wanting to get married and have a bright career just like any of us and suddenly just cause of one man’s evil desires of revenge and lust and the need to show his superiority, her dreams and her life lay shattered for ever.
It just made me think it could have been anyone in her place, even you or me.
It just made me think of me and my med friends, ( couldn’t stop comparing as it was the medical set up), the various night duties we did in medical school, working in government hospitals, staying alone and attending emergencies with just one male attendant by our side and only male staff on night duties.
It could have happened to any one of us.
Her fiancee, the young doctor, He did his best by visiting aruna for few months years and eventually got married to some one else, I don’t blame him.He had done his best, but what about that poor girl called Aruna with dreams washed away and hopes shattered and lying like a vegetable to rot.. Not for 1 or 2 but 42 long years!!
Imagine that!! Just close your eyes and imagine her plight,
Her poor family abandoned her, no one to call a family, no feelings of hunger or thirst, sunshine or rain, laughter or sorrow…Just a body full of bed sores lying in a single lonely room waiting for death to place it’s soothing palm on her.
I am not trying to gain sympathy here by describing it this way but this is the fact.
Her colleagues, the other nursing staff, the sisters of the hospital,continued to fight for her and take care of her in turns and let the authorities keep her on a life support in a room. Though over the years Arunas visitors dwindled, thanks to sisters kindness she could call a small ward room in the hospital as her home..Forever..
A kind journalist by name Pinky Virani had brought up the topic of euthanasia ( mercy killing)and had appealed to the court but of no use.
Finally nature took its course but a tad bit late and after 42 years of suffering Aruna, now is finally at peace!!
Imagine how different her life would have been if that brutal incident hadn’t occurred.
She might have been someone’s wife, mother,grandmother…Leading a happy life just like you and me and but what fate held for her did happen yet shuddering thinking it could have been anyone of us…
Just to show rape was always considered a sign of superiority, a sense of control and power
and a young innocent soul had to pay the price for it.
In a way I feel, though maybe not appropriate to say this but the nirbhaya girl was much better off, atleast she died instead of facing this horrible life and was spared the agony of living in a vegetative state for 4 decades.. How cruel can life be..
I deeply feel for Aruna… May her soul rest in peace and I am thankful her sufferings came to an end…
To know more about her…
Outlaw_nee 
Disgrace to live in a place where “Man” considers to have ultimate supreme power on woman and RAPE just another act to show his manliness
Mortification continues…This seems never ending.
Aruna voiced her opinion & chose to respond to the sweeper guy…Question now is
If we are going to bare with such incidents which still happens in our day to today life
– be it a Auto driver or getting abusive with people (especially Men) who Nag & pass comments upon you or Be bold to speak bak for such evils to end someday.
This Act of writing few words about the incident for a social cause i hope will help lot of people in this Busy world to stop take notice & spread a word of woman violence such which occurs…Lets do our bit for Transformation to happen 😦
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RIP..
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R.I.P x
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Yes, indeed very sad. I recall reading about this incident years ago! Has it been 42 years? No! Thank you for posting. May Aruna’s soul rest in peace. Brings to mind all the recent cases of rape that have been flouted by the media, not least of all about the girl who was studying physiotherapy and went out to see a film with her male friend. The bus conductor and his cronies raped and mutilated her inside out, and threw her out like garbage. She died not long after. Then again, what of all those women whose stories are not reported but they die a tiny death every minute they remain physically alive. Human beings do this to others… their behavior, actions and mindset would turn away the wildest of animals. A nasty world we live in. Civilized… really?
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True.. Things need to change.. But I wonder how and when..
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Sooner, we hope, than later. Awareness, respect for every human being — man, woman, child. Only then can that change come about. Each parent must nurture and inculcate that in their off-springs from childhood. No doubt, easier said.
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Poor thing. It’s a complex issue. Just praying for her soul and she has peace now. When I first read your headline I thought of euthanasia too but at the same time I can’t help but think there must have been something that kept her here for such a long time… who knows.
Thank you for sharing her story.
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The topic of euthanasia is still debatable in India.. With many being for and others being against it due to varied reasons.. In fact even euthanasia was considered for Aruna and an appeal made to the court but few felt it’s inhuman to take away someone else’s life even if he/ she is an invalid.. So lot of catches there.. Anyways as you said it was a life of long silent suffering.. May she find peace wherever she is..
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