“At first, she told me to wait, she said we couldn’t manage the EMIs [monthly instalments] and she didn’t want to overburden us. But then she found the bus ride so tiring after a long shift that she agreed to the car,” said the father.
Although they remained in the same lower middle-class suburb where she grew up, and where everyone respected her as a local girl made good, her parents had recently renovated the house. The brass nameplate bore her name, not theirs, proudly prefixed by “Dr”.
The sense of disbelief in the neighbourhood has not faded since the news spread from house to house that “their” doctor’s bright day was done.
The location of this attack – in the hospital where the victim worked, which she and her family assumed was safe – and her public service as a doctor working a 36-hour shift have added to the public outrage over the crime.
The father said: “Like all parents, we worried about her safety but only while she was travelling. The moment she reached the hospital, we relaxed. She was safe. It’s like when we used to drop her off at school – once she was inside the gate, you feel she is safe,” he said.
In a post on X, the head of the Indian Medical Association, Dr RV Asokan, expressed anguish at the murder, saying “we failed her in life but did not fail her in death” – a reference to the protests, outcry and doctors’ strikes that have rocked the country since her body was discovered.
Her colleagues and neighbours describe a dedicated young doctor who wanted to pay off her parents’ debts and give them a comfortable life after their sacrifices to help her become a doctor.
One of her former teachers, Arnab Biswas, said that unlike many young people who chose medicine for its earning potential, she was “old school”, treating it as a vocation.
Having witnessed Covid-19 patients gasping for breath, she selected respiratory medicine when it came to choosing a medical specialism.
Her parents are broken. “She was my only child. We worked hard to make her a doctor … I will never be happy again,” a neighbour said the mother told her.
Neighbours, who consulted her over every ailment and were proud of her achievements, recall her feeding stray animals and gardening when she had the time. They are yearning to help the family in some way.
“The girl has gone now,” said one neighbour. “But we’ll stand by her parents so they don’t feel alone.”