Shamu Lakshman Chavan and his wife Viju look like any other proud parents in the Colaba Woods Garden in south Mumbai, playing with their young daughter as she wriggles and gurgles in their arms.
The other children here though are unlikely to have had such a dramatic entry into the world as Tejaswini, who was born one year ago today.
Her mother went into labor at the city’s Cama and Albless Hospital on Nov. 26 last year, just as two heavily armed gunmen began stalking the building’s corridors and eight others laid siege to India’s financial capital.
PHOTO: AFP
The gunmen had fled to the maternity hospital after killing 52 people and injuring more than 100 others at the city’s main railway station in a blitz of automatic gunfire and hand grenades.
Viju said she was oblivious to the danger and thought the shooting was the sound of firecrackers or a marriage procession.
But she did what she was told as she was taken into the delivery room.
“I didn’t make any noise. I had to keep quiet,” the 29-year-old said. “It was very painful but I kept my mouth shut.”
Shamu, 34, had earlier been sent to buy medication when he saw a hospital security guard gunned down. He fled back inside with other frightened visitors and, unable to get to his wife, was forced to hide on the upper floors.
Inside the wards, the lights had been turned off and the doors locked so as not to attract the gunmen’s attention. Pregnant women and medical staff cowered on the floors, hiding behind metal bedframes.
Tejaswini, already two weeks early, couldn’t wait. She was born at 10:55pm, about an hour after the gunmen took up position in the hospital.
After giving birth, Viju huddled under the bed with her newborn until the coast was clear in the early hours of the morning.
The little girl was named after a Bollywood film about an uncompromising female police officer fighting corruption. But she also has a nickname — “Goli,” which means “bullet” in Hindi.
“The doctors told me to keep her name as “Goli” because she was born amidst a hail of bullets,” said Viju, flashing a smile.
The family will celebrate their daughter’s first birthday at their home in a slum next to the upmarket apartment buildings and luxury hotels in one of Mumbai’s oldest districts.
The couple, who also have a six-year-old son, see their youngest child as a blessing — and a symbol of new life born during so much death. In all, 166 people were killed.
“She was the difference between our life and death. She’s lucky to us,” Viju said .
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