After her schooling, Aruna shifted to Mumbai to pursue nursing. "I shifted to Mumbai a few years after. We used to meet at family gatherings as we hailed from the same village," said Umesh. He also recalled how Aruna was engaged to a doctor at KEM. "I had seen her strolling down the road with her fiance in Parel area," he said.
As news of the braveheart nurse's demise spread like wildfire on Monday morning across news channels, Aruna Shanbaug's former schoolmate, 65-year-old Umesh Pai, was keenly tracking the developments on television.
Later in the day, Umesh reached KEM Hospital to have a last look at his childhood friend. Umesh and Aruna were next-door neighbours in the village of Haldipur in Karnataka's Katwar district. Umesh told dna that Aruna and he used to attend the same school. "Both of us studied in Rural Education Society (RES) English School in the village. Aruna was senior to me by three years," Umesh said. "They were six brothers and three sisters – Balkrishna, Govind, Prabhakar, Shanta, Shalini, Sadananda, Gajanan, Aruna and Anand. Aruna was the youngest of all sisters, and the brightest of them all. She was the only girl in the family who studied till Std X and later went on to do higher studies in nursing." Umesh said that Aruna resembled her mother a lot. "She was an extremely fair and beautiful girl."
After her schooling, Aruna shifted to Mumbai to pursue nursing. "I shifted to Mumbai a few years after. We used to meet at family gatherings as we hailed from the same village," said Umesh. He also recalled how Aruna was engaged to a doctor at KEM. "I had seen her strolling down the road with her fiance in Parel area," he said.
A day after the gruesome assault on Aruna on November 27, 1973, Umesh visited her in the hospital. "We neighbours continued to visit her for up to 10 years after the attack. Then, slowly, the hospital restricted the visitors," said Umesh. "We are a close-knit community and have always had each other's back. We all jointly decided to participate in her last rites, as we had immense respect for her, and retain fond memories of our childhood."
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