MCN BOOK CLUB BOOK: ARUNA’S STORY AUTHOR: PINKY VIRANI SUBMITTED BY: AKANKSHA, HRM C (2014-16), H14127 SUMMARY:
“One man. Plus a savage twist of one chain. And the thirty seconds for his sperm to release. Equals one broken woman.” These intense words leave me stunned long after I had turned over the final few pages of Aruna’s Story. Like most of us I too was familiar with the heart wrenching story of this unfortunate case of a bright, young nurse at King Edward Memorial hospital who was brutally raped and assaulted with a dog chain and is rendered to live in this horrendous existence for the past four decades. But I came to know the details of this incident only through this story and I can’t think of a single word that would describe my emotions while reading it. Pinky Virani’s powerful depiction of the incident, building up of the characters, portrayal of imagined conversations between Aruna and her co-workers, her lover, transports the readers back into Aruna’s world in November, 1973. I could relate to that vivacious, headstrong girl who had come to the city of dreams to make her identity, who worked hard and excelled in her field, who had that jittery anticipation of an impending wedding and the wonderful aspirations of a beautiful future ahead with her betrothed (Dr. Sundeep Sardesai). The book progresses in three segments, the first one dealing with the actual incident, the second part delves into Aruna’s life before and the final part discusses the present state of affairs in the field of medicine. The author goes to great lengths to reconstruct this story so many years later. Aruna was a 25 year old nurse posted in dog surgery research laboratory, where she regularly admonishes a temporary cleaner Sohanlal for his frequent misdemeanors. She was about to go on a leave for her wedding when on that fateful day (Nov 27, 1973) she went down to the basement of the lab to change her uniform instead of the regular nurse’s station because it was close by. Sohanlal was waiting for this opportune moment to execute his revenge. He asphyxiated her with a dog chain before inhumanly sodomizing her, robbing her and then left her for dead. She was discovered much later in the wee hours of the morning. The reaction that different people had to this brutality is appalling. The case was never reported as a rape but as an incident of assault and robbery. The KEM doctors did not report the crime to the police, to spare Aruna & her fiancé the pain of a public exposure as they were to be married soon. Sohanlal was convicted for the same and served a seven-year concurrent sentence. He was released and led a normal life serving as a ward-boy in another hospital. Aruna’s matron wondered if God is punishing her or she is paying for her past lives’ crime. Her family abandoned

her to the mercy of the hospital staff and her fiancé too moved ahead in life and is now happily settled with wife and kids (although to give him some credit, he did wait patiently by her bedside for four years). The world around her has evolved but Aruna has been in the same vegetative state for past several decades. She lies crouched in a fetal position on her hospital bed, cortically blind (her eyes able to see but her brain unable to register what she sees), her teeth and muscles decaying, responding to stimuli but otherwise unable to communicate, her severe trauma causing her to break into bouts of inappropriate laughter and screaming. What kind of a banal existence is this? Should she be suffering for the atrocity inflicted on her? These questions were raised by the book and Pinky Virani argued for mercy killing of Aruna Shanbaug as her right to live with dignity was being infringed. The Supreme Court rejected her proposal because there were no laws for euthanasia in our country and she was not a close enough relation to make such a demand. But Aruna’s story has definitely made an impact. It lead to the first nurse’s strike demanding protection & proper treatment for Aruna along with better working conditions in Bombay’s municipal hospitals. Also, the Supreme Court has now allowed passive euthanasia to be practiced in India, a big step that was brought about because of one woman and her even bigger story.