Falak, This Sky has Limits!

For last two months, each day I was following her but not in person only in newspaper and in the virtual world. A piece of positive news about her made me happy and equally negative one was very depressing. Desperately wanted her to survive and hopping she will find a home where she will get all that she was deserted from. However, it never happened, she decided to depart, what TOI termed as for ‘Better World’.

On 18th January 2012, an unconscious baby girl is brought to AIIMS with injury marks all over her body by a 15 year old who claimed to be her mother. However, the girl fled. According to doctors, the baby girl had a fractured skull, broken arm, her chest showed burn marks from a hot clothes iron, blot clot in the brain and bite marks all over her body. The nurses who tended to her at the Intensive Care Unit named her ‘Falak’ meaning "The Sky". Since then, exposing series of shocking pieces of details behind the whole episode will make you sick.

Public outrage at her plight spurred investigations that uncovered a sordid tale of exploitation and callousness, and led to the arrest of 13 people accused of human trafficking. Police finally tracked down her biological mother, Munni, herself a victim of circumstances.

Falak's saga of misfortune began in September last year when her mother, 27-year-old Munni, took the bait of a trafficker and landed in the capital. She had left a daughter behind in Muzzafarpur, Bihar. Laxmi, who had lured Munni to Delhi, allegedly told her to leave Falak with her and got her married to a farmer in Rajasthan, claiming that she was a virgin.

Laxmi later handed over the child to Manoj, her neighbour and relative. Manoj was working with Rajkumar alias Mohammad Dilshad, with whom he entrusted the child. Rajkumar, who owns two taxis, was living in with a 14-year-old but was married to another woman. He left for Mumbai after he heard that his son, who suffers from a rare thyroid disease, had been admitted in hospital.

The 15 year old girl, who has herself had a traumatic past including an alleged brush with prostitution was left to take care of the baby. Apparently, she dropped the baby while bathing her. When the child would not stop crying, the frustrated teenager savagely attacked her but later took her to hospital after Rajkumar instructed her to do so over phone. The teenager later was arrested and will be tried for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Since January 18, doctors conducted five surgeries on her, she had two heart attacks. It was heart-warming news when on March 9, over 50 days after baby Falak was brought to the hospital, doctor's claim she is doing well and could even be discharged in a week. The doctors, though it remains uncertain whether she will remain in a vegetative state or not. Putting all speculation in the rest, on March 15, at 9.40 pm., Baby Falak dies of cardiac arrest.

An innocent life lost without any of her fault and may be there are many more Falaks living around the corner, who cares. Severely embarrassed by the events, what a murky and gory world we are living but still there are some light. The hope garnered by the humanity shown by the  staffs of AIIMS. Kudos to the doctors and nurses who devoted their days and nights to her, the way they treated the baby was heartening feature out of these shameful events. Whatever, Dr. Deepak Agarwal and his team done, termed to be unique and extraordinary. The gesture from the team is rare in a country like India where human lives, specially from poverty-stricken families has no values.

!!!R.I.P Falak, looking forward to meet you over there, what termed as ‘Better World’!!!