07 November,2009 07:13 AM IST | | Alisha Coelho
Woman wants to get sterilised after horror of delivering this baby girl, called Goli, at cama within minutes of Ajmal Qasab and Abu Ismail's death trail
Her birth certificate reads Tejaswini Shamu Chauhan, but in Ambedkar Nagar, Cuffe Parade, the one-year toddler goes by the name, Goli.
She is the sprawling slum colony's miracle baby, born at the time when Ajmal Amir Qasab and his accomplice Abu Ismail were a few feet away in the corridors of Cama and Albless Hospital, having already shot dead five people in the hospital and 58 at CST.
"My husband and I reached Cama at 9 pm and I was already in labour in the delivery room. In a bit, I heard the sound of firecrackers and I thought, great, we won the ODI with England.
But the nurse left the room to investigate the noise, leaving the door wide open.
I lay back, dealing with the contractions. She came running back and began to close all the windows. I knew then, something was terribly wrong," said Viju Chauhan (30), who works at Sassoon Dock.
'I saw the fear'
She closes her eyes, rubs her forehead and looks up. "The nurse came in and told us there were terrorists in the hospital. It sounded surreal, unbelievable.
This was Mumbai. But I saw the fear in their eyes.u00a0 My relatives in the corridor said the hospital was filing up with commuters from CST, who told them there was a massacre at the station.
My husband said the watchman had been shot. The door was locked, but there was a glass panel and in retrospect, I realised we had been sitting ducks.
When it was time, I saw the doctor's hands were shaking and the nurse was in tears. I don't know how I pushed. All I knew is that I wanted to be home, far away from here," recounts Viju.
At 10.55 pm, when Qasab and Ismail were still in the hospital, Viju delivered a healthy baby girl. That girl, Goli, will soon celebrate her first birthday.
But the delivery has made the couple bitter. Viju's husband Shamu (34), enters the room. "We don't want to have any more children. I don't think she can see the inside of a delivery room again."
Their son Sashikant (5) was also affected. "He did not know what was happening. This Diwali, every time a cracker went off, he asked us if something was wrong.
He still reacts to loud noises in this way," says Shamu.
Surviving every day is a bigger challenge for the family. "Our resources are limited, our boy goes to school and we have a home to run.
But we are alive, but those other people died," says Shamu. The doctor suggested the baby be called Goli (bullet), in remembrance of the day she was born.
At cama that day...
Cama Hospital had already closed the main gates after hearing news of firing at CST.
However, a small gate at the back was still open, which was used by Qasab and Ismail to enter the hospital after they shot dead a GT Hospital sweeper at his quarters behind Cama.
They had asked the man for water before putting a bullet through his head.
The terrorists then shot the two watchmen dead and ran up to the sixth floor, shooting in all directions, even slashing a patient's throat and shooting him in the back.
The hospital had nearly 180-odd people on the premises that night, including commuters who had fled from CST.
Mothers were instructed to breastfeed their babies to keep them from crying out and mattresses were stacked up against doors to ensure that the terrorists did not break through.
In Viju's room, eight people, including her five-year-old son, husband, sister and two CST commuters, were herded in to escape being shot at in the corridor.
Terror Timeline
9.40 pm: Qasab and Ismail begin firing at CST station, killing 58 and injuring close to a hundred people.
10.30 pm: The two enter Cama Hospital killing five.
10.55 pm: Goli Chauhan is born
11.10 pm: Addl Commissioner Sadanand Date and six others reach the hospital and exchange fire with the terrorists on the sixth floor
11.45 pm: Qasab and Ismail leave the hospital ducking into the adjacent lane near Rang Bhavan.
12.05 am: The Toyota Qualis with top cops Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte arrives at the spot, but are all shot dead.
