Newborn slips through train toilet, survives
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata/Purulia: Here is a born survivor. A baby, born in a train toilet, slipped through the filthy discharge chute on to the tracks. The distraught mother flung herself from the speeding train in complete darkness to rescue her baby. They were both found a few minutes later, shaken but alive.
This was the second time in one-and-a-half years that such a miracle has happened. On February 28, 2008, a newborn girl survived a fall from a train toilet in Gujarat. After toying with the names Jodhaa (valour) and Karishma (miracle), her parents named her Radha.
Rinku Debi Roy and her husband Bhola haven’t decided what to name their little braveheart yet.
Thirty-two-year-old Rinku and Bhola (34) boarded the S2 compartment of the Tata-Chhapra Express from Tatanagar along with their twoyear-old daughter Muskaan on Tuesday night. Rinky was at the end of her pregnancy and Bhola, a native of Orissa’s Sundergarh, wanted to get her admitted to a hospital in Sapur, near Chhapra, where he works as a contractor.
When the train neared Gamariah station around 10.30pm, Rinku went to the loo. She delivered the child while squatting down to relieve herself. Before she realized what had happened, the little one slipped from the birth canal and through the toilet. Rinku rushed out in panic, opened the door of the compartment and flung herself out.
Bhola was unaware of the goings-on but a few passengers and hawkers, who saw the woman jumping out of the train, pulled the chain believing she was trying to commit suicide. The train stopped nearly a kilometre away. Only then did Bhola realize something was wrong. When he could not find Rinky in any of the toilets, he started fearing the worst and joined a hundred or so passengers, who had already started a search. In the dark, they saw Rinku sitting beside the tracks clutching her newborn.
“All this happened in the middle of nowhere. Railway officials on the train decided to take Rinku and the child to Purulia (about 70km away),” a South Eastern Railway official in Kolkata said.


When the train reached Purulia at 12.25am, a medical team was ready. Rinku, the mother, and the child were examined by the doctor and sent to a hospital. “This was a miracle. I have never seen anything of this sort in years of service,” said station manager Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
Doctors at Deben Mahato Sadar Hospital were no less amazed. They could not believe that the child and his mother had survived falls from a speeding train.
“Both are in good health. We shall keep them under observation for 24 hours. If no complications arise, they will be released,” said Dr Swapan Sarkar, hospital superintendent.
Little Muskaan is being taken care of by the hospital staff. As for Bhola, he is on cloud nine. “I still cannot believe it. When I realized Rinku had jumped out of the train, I gave up all hope of seeing her alive. I can only thank god for keeping my family intact, with a bonus,” he said. TNN


P.S : This article appeared in “The Times of India, Chennai Edition, October 8, 2009