Aruna Shanbaug's final journey was an emotional one for thousands of nurses at the BMC-run KEM Hospital in Parel. Even on her deathbed, Aruna's face appeared fair, radiant and glowing. The sockets of her eyes were sunken and her jaw and cheekbones were prominently accentuated. She, however, looked devoid of any sickness. She lay peacefully in the front corridor of the hospital as numerous persons including medical and nursing students, senior and junior doctors, and the clerical staff came to pay their last respects to the resilient nurse.
State health minister Deepak Sawant, BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta and additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh were among those who came to KEM for 'antim darshan'.
At close to 5pm, Shanbaug was led from the floral wreath-laden platform to the Hindu Crematorium at Bhoiwada by the hospital staff. Before being led to the pyre, she was laid at an enclosure in the crematorium. Senior nurses and ward boys who had tended to her for years anointed her with Gangajal, and garlanded her with countless blossoms.
Shanbaug belonged to the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community from Karnataka.
Earlier in the day, the nurses had raised objections to Aruna's extended family participating in the last rites. Later, it was agreed upon that she would be cremated in a traditional manner with the last rites to be jointly performed by Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM Hospital, and Aruna's extended family.
Aruna had never married and had no family of her own, though she was once engaged to be wedded to a doctor at KEM itself. Barely two months prior to their wedding, she was brutalised and left paralysed. The fiance did not visit her ever again once she was bedridden, said nurses who knew her for many years.
Dr Avinash Supe and Aruna's nephew Vaikunth Nayak jointly lit her funeral pyre on Monday. As the flames lapped up the wood and rose to veil her in smoke, the teary-eyed nurses broke out into loud slogans – 'Aruna Shanbaug amar rahe! (Forever live Aruna!)'.
