“Ma, I Don’t Need Money…”: Kolkata Doctor’s Mother On Daughter’s Dreams

In a heart-breaking letter, the mother of the Kolkata doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College last month, shared that it was her daughter’s childhood dream to become a doctor, not for money but to be able to cure as many as possible.

The mother’s letter, written on Teacher’s Day, thanked teachers who helped realise that childhood dream. “I am the mother of the deceased… Today on Teachers’ Day, I salute all the teachers on behalf of my daughter. Since childhood, her dream was to become a doctor. You were the driving force behind that dream,” the letter read.

Crediting her teachers for her success, she said that although they, as parents, supported her as much as they could, it was “because she got good teachers like you, she was able to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor.”

The mother also shared a conversation she had with her daughter about money. “My daughter used to say – ‘Ma,I don’t need money, I just want a lot of degrees in front of my name and I want to cure as many patients as possible’,” she said.

Talking of the day of the horrific rape and murder, she said, “Even on that Thursday she left the house and she helped many patients at the hospital. She was murdered by the killers while on duty and her dreams were brutally strangled.”

The mother reiterated the family’s call for justice for the doctor. 

On Wednesday, the parents of the victim, who joined the protest at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, alleged that the hospital administration initially tried to suppress the case and close it without a thorough investigation.

“They, from the very beginning, tried to hush up the case. We were not allowed to see the body and had to wait at the police station while the body was taken for post-mortem examinations,” her father said.

“Later, when the body was handed over to us, a senior police official offered us money, which we immediately declined,” he added.