ALAS! HERS IS REALLY A WOEBEGONE PLIGHT!

BY CHAITANYESH RUDRACHARYA

Life is a gift of God! Enjoy it! But please, never enjoy your life to harm others, in whichever way it can be! 

The whole nation was up in arms in December 2012! Nirbhaya, a medical student was gang-raped on the roads of the national capital on a bitingly cold Sunday night. After this heinous act, she and her friend, a male, were thrown out of a moving bus, in utter disdain! Horrific and gruesome! No woman or man must ever be subjected to any form of cruelty, for dignity is everyone’s right. But alas! What I say is mere fiction and idealism, for Man has become his worst enemy!

Picture courtesy- Pinki Virani 

For some reason, I began thinking of this girl Nirbhaya aka Jyoti and the ordeal she faced. I felt very sorry for her. So would anyone. And as I was lost in her thoughts, I was reminded of another woman who was raped as many as 40 years ago in a hospital where she practised nursing as her profession. Words truly fail to describe the gut-wrenching condition of Aruna. A look at her in this photograph will bring tears and melt hearts of even the most barbaric and uncivilised brutes.  

Aruna Shanbaug had chosen nursing as her profession to soothe and serve ailing souls, but even in her wildest dreams, she would not have known she would end up on the bed as a victim of rape… as a victim who would never recuperate from rape… be it ten or twenty or forty years! Sohan Lal Walmiki was a ward boy in the same hospital as Aruna’s. And it was he who perpetrated the most henious crime… rape of Aruna Shanbaug. 

But why? 

It is alleged that Sohan Walmiki had fallen into bad company and was frequently stealing money from the purses of the people in the hospital. During one such time, Aruna Shanbaug caught him. Vexed at this, she reprimanded him badly and brought the matter to the notice of the higher ups. With this, Aruna Shanbaug thought the matter had come to an end. she also thought Walmiki would mend his behaviour, but unfortunately that was not the case.

Infuriated at this, Walmiki decided to teach her a lesson and he was waiting for an apt moment for the same. On that ill-fated day, Aruna Shanbaug, after her work, came down to the basement of the hospital to change her dress. Incidentally, this basement, during those times, was completely eerie, with no men or women around. In fact, Aruna had been warned several times not to go to that room all alone, but this warning only fell on deaf ears. 

By the way, as Aruna got into the room and began changing her clothes, Walmiki stepped in with vengeance as his driving force and rape as the reprisal! And then, locking the room, he did the unthinkable! What’s worse, Sohan ensured that she could not scream by gagging her mouth and leashing her using a dog chain! By the way, that day, Aruna had had her periods as well but that too did not deter Arun from unleashing his violence. He sodomised her!

Once the forced sodomy was unleashed, Walmiki silently slipped away from the room, while Aruna lay on the bed, like a lifeless body! The matter came to light, fortunately, when, after the crime was perpetrated, one of the ward boys too came to the room, to change his dress. It was at this juncture that he saw Aruna’s neck tied with a dog’s chain and blood drops trickling down. Appalled at what he had seen, he informed the others, who immediately shifted her to the ward for treatment. 

Truly, that was one moment ghastly enough to scar her life forever! As the treatment was to begin, doctors were horrified to see her brain partially ruptured and many of her organs become dysfunctional! As he choked her with a dog chain and sodomized her, the asphyxiation cut off oxygen supply to her brain, resulting in brain stem contusion injury and cervical cord injury apart from leaving her cortically blind.

That horrible incident took place way back in 1973. Today, it’s been more than 40 years. And you may find it difficult to believe that even to this day Aruna lies on a bed in the same state! She can’t move nor can make her organs function. Like a small child, she lies on the bed, nurses keep taking care of her in turn! 

When one of her friends approached the Supreme Court, it permitted passive euthanasia on her. Even to this day, many rapes, gangrapes and even pedophilia are perpetrated with unimaginable rudery! 

Is being born a woman a crime in our country?  

THEY DESERVE OUR RESPECT

BY NOLAN PINTO

I have always looked up to them from a young age. Always been fascinated with their life. Wanted to be one among them but fate took me somewhere else. The armed forces till date triggers my imagination and with the few websites giving up-to-date information on whats happening, military enthusiasts like me have only that to feel a part of them.

Today, the armed forces are struggling to get the cream of the youth to join them. With easy ways of making money without having to struggle much and putting ones life at risk, why join the forces many say. The government has tried a number of ways to make the forces interesting for the youth but sadly has not been that successful. Of late though, the number of vacancies in the officer cadre which was in the thousands is slowly but surely being filled and thankfully. This is in part to the increase in the pay scale of both officers and soldiers. And also to the better ways of reaching out to the youth either through advertisements in television channels and also in papers.

So, considering that not many want to join the forces because life is tough and your always in danger of being killed, I believe we the nation must always respect them. Respect their decision to serve the country and give up their lives defending it always and anytime.

I had a conversation with a retired Wing Commander who served the IAF for decades. It was simply a normal hello and how are you conversation but it got me thinking when he narrated an incident that took place decades ago in Southern France. This IAF officer along with other officers were in France on some work and their French host was showing them the place. They had to catch a high speed train and were waiting in a queue.

Triumph at Kargil

Not many people were present but their French host, a senior defence ministry official informed the others that these are military personnel and need to get their tickets soon. The few people in the queue immediately gave them way. Wing Commander Rao who now lives in Bangalore informed the train ticket issuer that they are not from the French military but the response he got pleasantly surprised him and all the rest.

That lady told him that even if he is not from the French military, he still served his country. What she did then and there was to in a way respect this man who served the forces of his country thousands of kilometers away.
  
When he told me this, I was stunned. In so many years, I have never heard a retired or even serving armed forces personnel telling me of any such or different incident in our own country.

Picture courtesy- www.instablogs.com

Really folks, do we as a nation respect our armed forces personnel? His experience in a similar situation in India was different. While retuning from a forward area (conflict zone) on leave he sent a requisition for reserving a berth to the nearest rail head. (These were the days before online reservations). On reaching the station he was informed that there was no reservation. Repeated requests to check if any telegram had been received and that he was travelling home from a forward area on short leave fell on deaf ears. He was curtly told that he was not doing anybody a favour by being in the military and to leave the counter.

Yes, we all are equal in the civilian world and being an officer does not mean that they can barge anywhere they want to and get what they want to. But the response is what matters. We do not bother about them simple. While some news channels do try to covers stories on the forces, there are many more who look upon them as nothing but '0' TRP.

Unfortunately, had it been a politician or a film star, people would have fallen over each other to make sure they were comfortable. We forget that those are celebrities made by us, but the forces let us lead the life of celebrities!