This is the story of an adorable little baby whose dream of a happy life of playfulness, was shattered, rudely and irreparably.
The four-year old child was diagnosed with a diseased eye. Doctors at the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Hyderabad, recommended surgical intervention. Something went wrong. Doctors performed surgery on the normal eye instead of the diseased eye, rendering the patient totally blind forever.
This was in 1979. The botched eye surgery and its innocent victim, Nasreen Banu, became the subject of a major media controversy. The State Government, bearing the brunt of criticism, got her flown to the United States for treatment. That, however, did not make things any brighter for her. Internationally known cancer specialist, Nori Dattatreya, had devoted considerable space to the sordid episode in his autobiography.
In due time the matter was forgotten and the family reconciled itself to a life of poverty compounded by perpetual anxiety for the baby’s future.
As a reporter, I used to visit the family once in four or five years for an update, the latest was in 2003 or thereabouts when Nasreen was in her mid-twenties. I took her along with her mother to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s residence in Jubilee Hills to seek help for the family.
I was waiting to be called in when to my surprise I saw him leaving. He stopped noticing me, even as I tried to catch his eye. He was in a hurry to leave on a foreign tour. I quickly refreshed his mind about the 1979 aborted surgery on the girl. He listened patiently to the mother’s tale of woe and assured her all possible help.
An hour later, a senior official called me to ask what kind of help they could render to Nasreen. The family could choose from out-of-turn allotment under the weaker sections housing scheme, public phone booth, gas connection or vocational training for Nasreen at the SETWIN. I advised her to consult the family, the ultimate beneficiary.
It has been almost 20 years since I retired. Sometimes I reflect, ‘Nasreen must now be in her mid-forties. I wonder how she is doing.’
Tail-piece: My good friend, Mir Ayoob Khan, a United News of India reporter at the time, broke the sensational Nasreen Banu story. He got a bizarre reward for the scoop. For reasons best known to the boss, D. Sitaram pulled him off the developing story and instead assigned the follow-up job to another reporter, Kalyani Shanker. This is not unusual in a newspaper or wire services atmosphere. Ayoob went on to hold senior editorial positions in the Gulf and back again in Hyderabad.
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