On May 13, Archana Kirit Pandya left her office in Mumbai for Home on her regular time. It was her 5th day in Tata Consultancy Services Mumbai, which the 22 year old girl had just joined. Little did she know that it would be her last journey.
Archana Kirit Pandya with her brother Siddharth Pandya
At around 9PM, her brother Siddharth Pandya got a call from someone, who informed that his sister was critical and admitted to Trauma Care, near Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road in Mumbai. When he reached there, his sister was no more. She had met with an accident near one of the busiest streets, the Western Express Highway. After she was hit by a car, someone picked her up and kept her on the pedestal adjoining the service road opposite the Hub Mall, while her head was bleeding badly. She lay there for 20-25 minutes, until getting picked up by Police Patrol Vehicle and was admitted to hospital.
In an article written on social sharing platform Saddahaq, her brother Siddharth Pandya raised several questions which reveals the hollowness of our society.
After she was kept on the pedestal by the driver, for 20-25 minutes, there were people who came and saw her, but did not help her until police came from the nearby station and took her to the hospital.
“Had onlookers shown some empathy and rushed her to a nearby hospital which was only 2 minutes away from the accident site, and she would be alive?”, asks her brother.
The common people make noise about corruption, bad justice system and traffic management. They forget that they are equally responsible for this shit, as the only contribution from them is to ‘talk’ and ‘not act’.
He argues that if Driver was responsible for the accident, the onlookers were responsible for her Death.
“People will argue that Mumbai police will find the hit-and-run driver, and get him punished, but I lost my sister, and I will never see her again”, he says.
“For the media houses, I would like to say that I know that my sister dying in a hit-an-run is not a so-called ‘Breaking News’ story, because the person ‘accused’ to be behind the wheels is not Superstar Salman Khan (I can say that with certainly, as he is in Kashmir), nor was the person dying some VVIP”, he writes.
He goes on to tell how his sister was excited after getting a job on her own. She had planned a Ladakh trip next year with the family, with whatever savings she had.
“The best phase of her life had just begun, and she wanted to live her life to the fullest.But, it was cut short to just 5 days, and at the pedestal, where she was fighting her death like a real brave-heart for 20 long minutes, in search of a helping hand from the so-called common people, which never came, initially. And once it came, it was too late. That’s why she is my Nirbhaya“, he writes.
Perhaps, someday this society will have to answer Siddharth’s Questions.