My book "Daughters of Kerala"

Kerala Nuns Saving a Sikh Woman and Her Son

     N.S. Madhavan’s "When Big Trees Fall" is about the turbulent time in Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. (In a speech given by Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of his mother, he said, “When big trees fall the earth trembles.”)

     Sectarian violence erupts after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, there is chaos everywhere and the Sikhs are being massacred by the Hindus. A number of them take refuge in the Gurudwara (place of worship) which is guarded by men ready to face the attackers. But they are attacked. Amarjit’s husband and grown son are killed by a man who has a shop next to theirs. He had been trying to buy the shop to expand his business and uses the chaotic occasion to kill the man and his family. But when he pulls Amajit’s hand she bites him hard to release the grip, drags her son and runs. In the darkness of the night they climb through the cracks in the wall and get in side the convent. The nuns give them warm milk, food to eat and a place to sleep. They can hear the motor bikes of the men who followed Amarjit circling the convent and shouting for the woman and boy to be released. The Gurkha gatekeeper locks the gate, chains it and waits inside.

     During the night stones are thrown at the convent which is a retirement home for old nuns who had worked in Delhi and surrounding areas. The arrival of Amarjit and her son seems to have given new energy and a purpose to the old nuns. The people chasing the woman and boy come to the convent and are beating on the gate asking for their release. Everyone knows that the mother and son cannot stay in the convent for long. So the superior, after praying for a long while, comes up with a plan.

     Amarjit is to dress like a nun and the boy whose hair is cut is to lie down in a coffin. The nuns are to take the coffin to the cemetery in an ambulance as if for burial. Once they are in the cemetery, out of site of people, they can go out another way and escape.

     The attackers try to stop them, but a Spanish nun who is in the group speaks to them in Hindi and asks why they are bothering the dead. Her accent and blue eyes didn’t go with the looks of Delhi and the young men leave the ambulance alone and go away. On reaching the cemetery, when no one is interested in them any more, they open the coffin and the boy gets up like a butterfly coming out of the pupa. From there they go to the railway station and get on a train to safety along with a visiting nun who is also leaving Delhi.

     The next day the residents of the convent go back to their old life of waiting for the end and the superior thinks she can feel death in the air that would take place very soon.

     This story was selected to represent the thousands of young Kerala women who become nuns to serve the poor in other parts of India and abroad.

     India edition of “Daughters of Kerala” available from:      www.Rainbowbookpublishers@gmail.com

Web link: http://www.AchammaChander.com