Image only for representational purpose
An incident that took place at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi this past Eid made news headlines. On the 15th of this month, a nine-year-old son of a labourer couple, who was admitted to AIIMS due to a serious head injury in a bike accident in Mewat, Haryana, died on Eid day. The day before, on April 21, when the boy became brain dead, his parents,after speaking to the hospital's organ donation department, announced that they were donating his organs. The rare determination of the parents that their darling's organs - who should have celebrated Eid festival with them and received an 'Eidi' (festival gift) from their friends and relatives - to let their son's organs be a gift of life for two other souls will fill the eyes and heart of anyone with humaneness. That is why many celebrities celebrated this news on social media and prayed for those parents and their dear son. The youngest of five children, born with a single kidney, his kidney was given to a 20-year-old from Bahadurgarh, Haryana; his liver was given to a sixteen-year-old undergoing treatment at AIIMS for transplantation, and both his corneas were donated to an eye bank. The heart valves were also donated to the hospital for later use. "We lost him. If his organs can save someone else's life, then that is the biggest festive gift we can give for him'' was the reaction of the boy's parents. Their decision was to wish their son 'Eidi' this time by letting his organs be the life that throbs in some other lives.
In these times, tainted by tales of demonic acts, it is no small comfort to hear such edifying instances of peace imparted by tender experiences which reassure us that the moisture of humanism has not dried up in this day and age. It is these rare births that keep the small sparks of kindness and mercy aflame amid the wind and storm made by those searching for holes of spite and war in anything. The magnanimity of the poor Mewati couple shines all the brighter when one considers that India is the most backward country in the world in terms of organ donation, with only 0.4 people per million volunteering for it. This is not the first story from Mewat. On last November 6, when the one-and-a half year old Mahira was admitted to AIIMS after falling from the balcony of her flat, her parents had also donated the organs of their daughter. Her liver still sustains the life of a six-month-old, and her two kidneys of a seventeen-year-old.
This gift of the people of Mewat has more glory. Mewat was the land of guardians who protected Delhi from invaders, beginning with the Mughals to the British with their own gallantry. That is why Mahatma Gandhi held them back when they were about to leave the country on the day of partition by saying they were the backbone of this country, and they should not go anywhere but stay in this land. But today, when the name of Mewat is heard, fire fills the hearts of Indians. Today's Mewat is made up of the horror scenes of the communally driven cow vigilante goons, and young people who fall bleeding as victims of their merciless beatings and the base minds who capture it on video and make the enmity viral on the social media. This is the land of Junaid, a 16-year-old boy who was killed by a Hindutva mob six years ago while on his way to bring festival clothes to his family, of Rakbar Khan (28), and of Waris, a 22-year-old who was beaten to death by cow vigilantes - in a manner similar to those who fell victim like Pehlu Khan (55), and dairy farmers who were killed by Sangh Parivar all in the name of cow protection. The ever soft chant of the people of Mewat is 'Bhaichara' or brotherhood. In a way, they are settling scores in their own noble manner against the brutality that butchers them, and a world sans mercy to hold its hand or speak against it. They now do this by plucking out the eyes and livers of their dear children to give them to others.