At a time when frantic efforts are being made to polarise and divide India’s plural society on communal lines, reports of the members of one community coming to the aid of the people in need belonging to another community indeed leave a soothing effect. Two recent reports, one from Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh and the other from North Dinajpur district of West Bengal make the point home.
Jagran.com on March 18 reported that a (burqua-clad) Muslim lady saved the life of a Hindu Brahmin lady, who was admitted to District Hospital Ballia. Manisha Pandey, wife of Gopal Upadhyaya of Tikhampur in Ballia district, was admitted with labour pain and advised caesarean; she required blood of AB Negative group. As AB Negative is the rarest blood type, even after frantic search her husband was unable to fetch even a single unit of the required blood. He contacted a donor Sagar Singh Rahul and sought his help. Sagar Singh contacted other donors but no one’s blood matched the blood of the lady. Then Sagar Singh contacted Raju Khan of Gudri Bazar. Luckily, Raju Khan’s wife Simmi Shaikh’s blood group matched with Manisha Pandey’s.
When Simmi came to know that a lady required blood of her group, both she and her husband Raju readily agreed to help the lady in need and rushed to District Hospital Ballia where Simmi donated her blood to Manisha Pandey and thus helped save the life of Manisha and her new-born baby.
Use here Image with caption: Haslu Mohammad (left) and Achintya Kumar Biswas
In another development reported on March 17, when Haslu Mohammad of Kachimuha in Raiganj, North Dinajpur district of West Bengal heard of his friend Achintya Biswas’ condition and the doctors’ advice for Biswas, 34, to undergo a kidney transplant as the only option to save him, he volunteered to donate one of his kidneys.
Mohammad applied to the state health department to seek approval. Then, his application was transferred to the local police to investigate if his motives were dubious. The investigation proved that Mohammad’s offer was, indeed, noble. A local policeman reportedly said that a report is on its way to the state health department, giving him the green light to go ahead with the donation.
Haslu’s wife, Manoara, said her husband did what a human being is supposed to do for a friend, irrespective of which community we belong to.
Both Simmi Shaikh and Haslu Mohammad are being hailed for serving the cause of humanity by helping the persons in need save their life on totally humanitarian ground.