Mumbai: When bullets were flying thick and fast at the Cama & Albless Hospital on the night of November 26, 2008 in Mumbai, a girl was born at the hospital.
Her parents aptly named her “Goli” (bullet) in memory of the bullet shots fired. While birthdays are a happy occasion for many, especially children, for eight-year-old Goli Chavan, it reminds her of the macabre terror attacks in which 166 people died and over 300 were injured.
For Goli’s mother Viju Chavan, “happiness and sorrow” go hand in hand. Her bundle of joy was born amidst bullets being fired outside the hospital by terrorists Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail Khan.
Call it a strange coincidence, Ms Chavan’s younger daughter was born on February 13, 2010, the day of the German Bakery blast, Pune.
“Both my girls were born on days of struggle and despair. We hope Goli proves to be a shining star,” said Ms Chavan. Goli, whose official name is Tejaswini, learned the secret behind her name only on her seventh birthday.
“She came home crying a few days before her seventh birthday because some children in the slum called her ‘AK-47’ and ‘Pakistani’. She wanted to know why her name was Goli,” said Ms Chavan, who works as a domestic help. It was then that Ms Chavan told her daughter that she was one of the “happiest memories” that people have of that fateful night.
