Headlines
Mumbai marks Aruna Shanbaug's 68th birthday
Mumbai, June 1
Nurses of the KEM Hospital on
Monday fondly remembered their colleague Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug, who
remained in coma for 42 years after sexual assault when she was 25 and
died here on May 18.
Since morning, scores of nurses visited the
tiny room No.4 in the hospital which was Shanbaug’s home as she lay
there for over four decades - deserted by her family and relatives, but
cared lovingly by the nurses of the hospital. They put flowers,
symbolically cut cake, and greeted one another.
KEM Hospital dean
Avinash Supe said nurses have been remembering Aruna Shanbaug since
morning. A commemorative programme has been organised in the hospital
auditorium later in the day by the nursing staff.
"We have also decided to rename the room No.4 after Aruna Shanbaug and continue giving care to patients there," Supe told IANS.
The
demand for renaming the room was made by the nursing staff shortly
after Shanbaug’s death. Later, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
announced that the Thane Nursing Training College would also be renamed
after her.
In another development, a Marathi biography on
Shanbaug, 'Vyatha Arunachi' (Aruna's Agony), penned by Mumbai journalist
Neha Purav after her death two weeks ago, would be released later in
the day.
"I used to go and sit at Aruna’s bedside for many years,
observed her from close quarters and also interacted with the nurses
who cared for her all these years. I thought of writing the book after
she died," Purav told IANS.
The book will be released at a public
function at Mumbai Press Club in the presence of Supe, former Rajya
Sabha member Bharat Raut, dean of Sir JJ Group of Hospital T.P. Lahane,
former mayors Shraddha Jadhav and Shubha Raul, Darpan Publishers’ Deepak
Mhatre and other prominent personalities.
Giving highlights,
Purav said the book details the agony of Aruna’s life in hospital, how
the nurses tried to help her selflessly, how she was deserted by her
family members, how her former fiancé even applied a ‘red tika’ on her
forehead four years after she lapsed into coma, but later succumbed to
family pressures and refused to accept her as his wife.
Last
week, a Mumbai journalist tracked down the current whereabouts of
Sohanlal Valmiki, the former hospital contract sweeper who perpetrated
the crime on Shanbaug 42 years ago shortly before she was proceeding on
leave to get married.
Valmiki was traced to a village in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
According
to latest reports, following the "discovery" of a person of disrepute
in their midst, the villagers now want him to leave the village.