Aruna’s younger brother, Anand does not understand why such a controversy should be raised over his sister, who has been forgotten by her family.
For over 20 years, the home of Aruna Shanbaug, the nurse who has been lying in a vegetative state after an assault was made on her in a Mumbai hospital in 1973, had been lying vacant. The house at Haldipur, Honnavar taluk, about 60 km from Karwar, had no occupants after its inmates migrated to Uttara Kannada.
Aruna’s younger brother, Anand Shanbaug, the only one who still lives in the vicinity, at Ankola, is a recluse. He does not understand why such a controversy should be raised over his sister, who has been forgotten by her family.
With television channels now discussing the Supreme Court judgement that allows ‘passive euthanasia,’ even as it refused permission to end the life of Aruna Shanbaug, the family is now back in the news.
“My father died just after Aruna completed her nursing education. We were left with no income, and two of my sisters migrated to Mumbai and Karwar. My elder brother Balarkishna Shanbaug, 86, lives a quiet life in Bangalore. He appears to have lost his memory,” says Anand Shanbaug.
Twenty years after the house of the Shanbaugs lay vacant, authorities at the Hunuman temple next to the house received authorization to give the house on rent and use the income for the temple.
“Thanks to Aruna and her family, the temple now has some means of income. After we came to know of the plea filed by a journalist seeking a right to die for Aruna, we were confused that the Supreme Court did not grant that right. We offer pooja to Lord Hanuman to give her strength. In case she has to die, we pray that her death might be peaceful,” said a priest at the temple.
“She was the most beautiful of the three girls in our family. I cannot believe her plight. I almost wished that god would give her a quick death, and deliverance from this ordeal,” Anand Shanbaug says.
Gangadhar Hiregutti, a respected author from Uttara Kannada, said, “I don’t understand why her family has stopped visiting her. She has been in this pathetic condition for 37 years, and her own family and community have stayed away.”
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