My father had rented a residential accommodation, a banglow type constructed on the road side , the verandah of which was mostly occupied by the patients , who used to come for consultation to him , early in the morning. Then after taking some lunch, my Father would go to the hospital . In evenings he used to visit some patients living around in adjacent villages like Palhalan etc.on horse back or tonga . I was also admitted first time in the school in pattan only.
After some time a nurse cum mid wife was appointed in the village hospital to take care of maternity issues. Actually trained nurses were not available those days and even if available, were few and far between, and mostly confined to cities only. Nurses for village hospitals were selected by giving local training of midwife to some School pass outs. The name of nurse , who was sent to pattan hospital , was Omashori. She was very gentle and simple woman in the age group of late forties. Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually, her best companions. She had a very fair complexion with blunt features. She was usually seen wearing a white sari, properly clad on her head. The most spectacular thing about her personality was a black broad rimmed spectacles hovering over her small blunt nose. A room wth a kitchen was arranged for her living purposes by my father, less than a half kilometer away from our residence. She usually visited our house in her leisure time and used to gossip with my mother and they both became very good friends soon .
She confided to my mother everything about her past life. She said to her that her parrents had already died and she was brought up by her uncle. As she grew up, she was married to a cunning person who always took advantage of her simplicity and harrased her for complete two years , being the period she remained with him. She also could not bear any child for him , which might have softened the approach of her husband towards her. However, One day she left her in-laws for good and started living with her uncle once again . Then her aunt and cousins also started harrasing her there. Her uncle told her one day, "you be a lady," and for that he meant , to be your own person, to be independent . Then he managed to get her a job of midwife in the medical department so that she becomes independent . He also transferred in her name a small portion of house , being the share of her parrents, as she was the only child of her parrents. In th mean time her uncle died and she also got divorce from her husband . Then her husband remarried again to some other woman.
As already said Omashori was very simple rather a simpleton and any body could take her far granted. My mother guided her always in dealings with other persons. As it is rightly said that no person can understand a woman better than by another woman.
Before advent of 1st April my mother properly cautioned her that on that day , some body may play prank with you in hospital . You should stand their jokes properly and take decision only after fully pondering over it. You should keep in mind first that it is 1st April and they may be making fool of you.
She replied, " Oh! It is so nice of you that you advised me in advance about the Ist April. I will take due precautions on that day not to get carried away by their pranks." So she left our house feeling very happy and confident.
My mother already knew her one weakness, that she felt elated whenever she got a chance to visit a patient, which however, she got rarely.
Next day on 1st April , early in the morning my mother sent my elder brother and sister to the residence of Omashari with a message that she had to accompany my father to a village nearby, in a tonga, to help him, as there was a very crucial maternity case. Omashori was eagerly looking out for such a chance. She immediately switched off the stove on which her meals was getting prepared, with out waiting for getting it fully prepared . She wore best of her dress and carried her professional bag on her shoulders and rushed towards our house . As she reached there she began to sniff some mischief being played upon her , as my father was leisurely doing his daily chores. My mother had not disclosed, to my father, any thing about the mischief being played on Omashori. He was so amazed to see her so early and that too properly dressed in our home. Omashori felt so ashamed as my mother had already advised her to take due care on this date. Then my mother requested her to take breakfast and lunch at our home and she didn't join her duty that day.
In the mean time Omashori had become very close to our family and we started treating her as a family member. She used to spent a lot of time in our home as she was feeling very lonely in her apartment.
After some time Omashori was destined to face a harrowing experience, which made her strong and changed her outlook towards life totally and no body dared to took her for granted, henceforth.
The landlord of her rented house was a Muslim family man. But his younger brother , who was also residing with him, had a large hunch on his back and looked very ugly by appearance . He was very crooked and mean also . He was not married either, because no body in village was prepared to marry his daughter to him. One evening he told Omashori, " Why do you bolt the room of your door inside during night?" " We have enough of security here as we keep main door of the house and gate of compound properly locked." " you need not to worry about this." Omashori could not suspect any malafide in his statement and started leaving her room unbolted from inside, when she would go for sleep.
One night hunchback opened the door of Omashori's room slowly and found her fast asleep. Then he bolted the door from inside and reached near Omashori's bed and started molesting her. Omashari woke up and on finding the hunchback so close to her bed, she gathered courage and pushed him away backwards giving a hard hit on his chest with her right hand , which made him to stumble on the ground snd that too on his back. Then she immediately left the room, trampling him under her feet ,after unbolting the door and stepping down from stairs and reached to the compound of that house , where she started crying for help. The brother of hunchback and few neighbours came immediately for her rescue but she refused to go back to her room. After few hours and with the advent of dawn, omashori left the house and reached to our home to brief us about the harrowing experience, she had that night. My father after some time went to police station and filed a FIR against the hunchback, who was apprehended immediately by the police.
Every women need to know that they can get out of any situation if they return to their core source of strength, themselves.
After some time Omashari changed her residence and moved ahead, while forgetting the past ,as she choose to live rest of her life , more confidently and in best way.
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