<p>Little would a thrilled Ramachandra Shanbaug imagine that the foreteller’s prognostication about his daughter, the last of her parents’ nine children and the favoured child of the family, would come true in a horrific manner.<br /><br />Aruna Shanbaug, who is lying in semi-comatose state on a bed in Ward 4 of KEM Hospital in Mumbai, and whose tragedy will decide the individual’s right to euthanasia in India, is that girl.<br /><br />Aruna was born in this small village located amid verdant environs off Highway - 17 in Honnavar Taluk.<br /><br />The family home where little Aruna gambolled about, “Garave Nivasa - 1963’ still stands near the Gopinath Venkatramana mutt.<br /><br />None of Aruna’s family live here any longer. The only residents from the Garave clan is the family of Lakshman Subraya Shanbaug.<br /><br />Of the six brothers of Aruna, three, Balakrishna, Govinda and Sadananda worked at the ‘Hindu Vishranti Gruha’, a guesthouse in the Agripada Chawl in Mumbai.<br /><br />Aruna studied upto Class X at the Rural Education Society School here, and after the death of her parents, left for Mumbai to live with elder brother, Balakrishna. She completed a nursing course and joined the KEM Hospital at Parel. The lively, pretty and dedicated Aruna was very popular.<br /><br />During her work, Aruna, who was engaged to a doctor, warned a sweeper, Sohanlal against mistreating animals in the laboratory and stealing medicines.<br /><br />She paid a heavy price for her conscientiousness. A vengeful Sohanlal strangled her with a dog chain and raped her brutally. The strangulation caused reduction in oxygen supply to her brain and caused what is called ‘hypoxic brain damage’. Aruna is now in a semi-comatose state, unable to speak or move, although she responds to stimuli and screams and laughs too sometimes.<br /><br />The staff nurses at KEM take care of her, and journalist Pinki Virani, moved by her plight appealed to the Supreme Court for medically assisted termination of life. <br />The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment.<br /><br />‘Fairy-like’<br /><br />Haldipur residents who knew Aruna recall that she was a very bright, beautiful girl. “Fairy-like”, was the comment of a senior citizen.<br /><br />The younger generation in Haldipur know her only from newspapers and the TV. They are against euthanasia. <br /><br />“None has the right to take anyone else’s life,” they argue.<br /><br />The beautiful Aruna did become famous as the astrologer predicted. Saddened at her plight, residents of Haldipur fervently wish he was wrong.</p>
<p>Little would a thrilled Ramachandra Shanbaug imagine that the foreteller’s prognostication about his daughter, the last of her parents’ nine children and the favoured child of the family, would come true in a horrific manner.<br /><br />Aruna Shanbaug, who is lying in semi-comatose state on a bed in Ward 4 of KEM Hospital in Mumbai, and whose tragedy will decide the individual’s right to euthanasia in India, is that girl.<br /><br />Aruna was born in this small village located amid verdant environs off Highway - 17 in Honnavar Taluk.<br /><br />The family home where little Aruna gambolled about, “Garave Nivasa - 1963’ still stands near the Gopinath Venkatramana mutt.<br /><br />None of Aruna’s family live here any longer. The only residents from the Garave clan is the family of Lakshman Subraya Shanbaug.<br /><br />Of the six brothers of Aruna, three, Balakrishna, Govinda and Sadananda worked at the ‘Hindu Vishranti Gruha’, a guesthouse in the Agripada Chawl in Mumbai.<br /><br />Aruna studied upto Class X at the Rural Education Society School here, and after the death of her parents, left for Mumbai to live with elder brother, Balakrishna. She completed a nursing course and joined the KEM Hospital at Parel. The lively, pretty and dedicated Aruna was very popular.<br /><br />During her work, Aruna, who was engaged to a doctor, warned a sweeper, Sohanlal against mistreating animals in the laboratory and stealing medicines.<br /><br />She paid a heavy price for her conscientiousness. A vengeful Sohanlal strangled her with a dog chain and raped her brutally. The strangulation caused reduction in oxygen supply to her brain and caused what is called ‘hypoxic brain damage’. Aruna is now in a semi-comatose state, unable to speak or move, although she responds to stimuli and screams and laughs too sometimes.<br /><br />The staff nurses at KEM take care of her, and journalist Pinki Virani, moved by her plight appealed to the Supreme Court for medically assisted termination of life. <br />The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment.<br /><br />‘Fairy-like’<br /><br />Haldipur residents who knew Aruna recall that she was a very bright, beautiful girl. “Fairy-like”, was the comment of a senior citizen.<br /><br />The younger generation in Haldipur know her only from newspapers and the TV. They are against euthanasia. <br /><br />“None has the right to take anyone else’s life,” they argue.<br /><br />The beautiful Aruna did become famous as the astrologer predicted. Saddened at her plight, residents of Haldipur fervently wish he was wrong.</p>
