Theme: Rape

Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug

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(1 June, 1948 – 18 May, 2015)

Dehumanized, sodomized and strangulated with a dog chain,
By her tormentor Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki with utter disdain,
Aruna Shanbaug lay senseless in an agonizing wait,
For four long decades in coma and a vegetative state,
To be released at last from a “life” of untold misery and pain.
 
Her upcoming junior nurse’s career was nipped in the bud,
As Walmiki left Aruna *cortically blind in a pool of blood.
And while this inhuman culprit was on the run,
Nurses and doctors of KEM Hospital rose as one,
For forty-two long years to tend to Aruna reduced to a dud.
 
Because sodomy then was not considered an act of rape,
With a seven-year sentence could her tormentor escape.
While Aruna’s pictures have been splashed all over,
Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki’s have been under cover.
For him the jail sentence perhaps was just a mere scrape.
 
Aruna’s horrible condition and vegetative state,
Led to a heated and all round Euthanasia debate.
But how come no concerns or doubts,
Were raised on Walmiki’s whereabouts?
Can the Aruna..s be safe, only with the prefix “Late”?
 
*Cortical blindness is the total or partial loss of vision in a normal-appearing eye caused by damage to the brain's Occipital Cortex
Image © Padmaja Iyengar

21-May-2015

More By  :  Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

Views: 1418     Comments: 2

Comments on this Poem

Comment Dear Kulbir Thanks. Sadly, there is no justice in India...

Padmaja Iyengar
21-May-2015 14:10 PM

Comment Padmaja,

What a shocking story! Where is justice in India?

Kulbir
21-May-2015 13:24 PM


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