E-Paper
Safe from Bangalore, but silent
SHE SURVIVED the terrorists. And now her family is hoping that she survives the ?media?s? onslaught too. As soon as Dr Sonia, an assistant professor in IIM-L arrived in Lucknow by a Deccan Airways flight on Friday afternoon, media persons started calling the family members for an ?exclusive? with the lady thinking that she was presumably an eye witness of the sensational terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore where she had gone to attend a conference.
SHE SURVIVED the terrorists. And now her family is hoping that she survives the ‘media’s’ onslaught too.
As soon as Dr Sonia, an assistant professor in IIM-L arrived in Lucknow by a Deccan Airways flight on Friday afternoon, media persons started calling the family members for an ‘exclusive’ with the lady thinking that she was presumably an eye witness of the sensational terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore where she had gone to attend a conference.
But Dr Sonia’s husband Narendra Singh informed Hindustan Times that his wife didn’t see much on that fateful day at IISC. “As soon as terrorists opened burst fire, she was hit by a spark on her eye after which she fell down and had to be rushed to a hospital later. So, see obviously she wouldn’t be able to recount the incident anyway,” Singh said. He appealed to the media to leave the family alone for a few days.
Singh was also upset with the media for asking “frivolous” queries that were entirely “personal” in nature and had nothing to do with the incident as such.
Meanwhile, the entire IIM-L community rallied around Dr Sonia as soon as she arrived on the campus. Virtually everyone on the IIM-L campus who called upon Dr Sonia wished her a speedy recovery. IIM-L director Professor Devi Singh told HT on phone from Delhi that he too wanted to go to Bangalore after hearing the incident. He couldn’t. Nevertheless, he kept track of the developments right through. Other IIM-L professors like Prof Debashis Chatterjee who is on a vacation to Kolkata too kept track of Dr Sonia’s progress. IIM’s dean, academic affairs Prof RK Srivastava said that media must respect the privacy of an individual.
“She requires rest. One must understand that,” Prof Srivastava told HT. Senior IIM professors kept on inquiring about their colleague’s health right through. “Dr Sonia was received at the airport by two IIM professors. From there she was driven directly to her campus-residence at IIM-L,” a professor said.
