Kerala - Thrissur   

Crucible of life

By K. Santhosh

Monisha Mukundan

THRISSUR, MARCH 3. The seven-year old watched helplessly as her parents and siblings were screaming and running helter-skelter to escape the flames that rapidly engulfed their house.

On August 19, 2000, Monisha Mukundan's father, a wholesale vegetable merchant, had locked and bolted the doors, sealed the windows, and set the house on fire. The man wanted the entire family to die, according to the police.

No one except Monisha survived. She was a mass of burnt flesh, hardly recognisable, while being brought to the Jubilee Mission Medical College in Thrissur. When her story was put out by the media, the entire State was shocked.

Five years later, as she walked into the hospital today, smartly and confidently, wearing jeans and a light-coloured top, onlookers could not hide their emotions. Monisha hugged the nurses and exchanged pleasantries with the doctors.

"I've a new cycle and I take it to school. The boys in the town are jealous," she told the doctors. A Class VI student of Mangad St. Joseph's School, Monisha is being brought up by her aunt and grandmother. Monisha was the chief guest at the seventh anniversary celebrations of the hospital's Department of Burns.

"She has been to hell and back. Her courage has been exemplary and joy infectious. Even when she was writhing in pain, she would smile. She would crack jokes, sing and cheer up the other patients. We missed her when she left," said Sr. Aruna.

Life continued to be difficult for the young one. She endured court battles over the ownership of family property, blistering remarks by some relatives and physical discomfort.

"Images of an inferno haunted me. I would remember my mother and siblings running helter-skelter, flames licking their bodies. I would hug my grandmother and go to sleep," Monisha said.

"It's all over. I'm at peace with the world," she said. Scars still remain on her face and hands.

A German missionary group has promised to help her. When she turns 18, she will be taken to Germany for plastic surgery.

"They say I will return a beauty," Monisha said. The nurses and doctors interrupted her and asked, "Who said you are not beautiful now?" As Monisha sang a song softly in the hospital ward today, it reminded everyone that life was indeed beautiful.

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