-Brian Mendonça
Recently the newspapers screamed that a person’s arm
had been cut off at the wrist. This was not somewhere in some lawless place
where fiefdoms run supreme, but in Goa - in Ribandar to be precise.
Apparently Krishna Kuttikar, the person whose wrist was
cut off, was not part of the gang but just happened to be there. Sucked into
the fracas, he paid – with his life. The injury was so bad that he passed on a
few days later due to shock and loss of blood. The irony is that the warring
groups were friends once.
What is it that causes one to dismember another? Is it
a heightened expression of hate perpetrated by the enemy, when the captive is
defenceless?
This act of violence committed on the body seeks to
degrade it of its sanctity. It is an act by a sadist who seeks to inflict the
maximum amount of pain before s/he snuffs out the life of the person.
On the same day that the gruesome incident was reported
in the papers, I came across a similar incident when I opened my Bible. It told of the life and death of Nicanor, a
Persian general. There was only one reference to it in the bible. In the battle between Nicanor and the Jews he
is slain:
‘The
Jews took the loot and then cut off Nicanor’s head and his right arm, which he
had extended so arrogantly. They brought his head and his arm to be put on
display in Jerusalem.’ *
Sometimes the hand can be severed by accident. Mid-day,
Mumbai, reported the case of 4-year old Naira
Purswani who tried to shut the elevator door after a recorded voice from the
elevator asked for the door to be shut. As she did so, the lift was called to
the fourth floor. Her right hand got stuck between the doors and the lift door
closed. Her right hand was torn from the wrist and reached the fourth floor.
She was rushed to Lilawati Hospital where the severed part was reattached after
a 12-hour surgery in the middle of the night.
Closer home, outside Mall de Goa, Porvorim, killers
came for the life of a builder. He was out with his wife and child. As he was
stepping into his car the killer attempted to slash his neck. However, he was
carrying his daughter of four years who had put her arm around his neck. The
blade slashed the child’s arm and severed it at the wrist. The child was rushed
to Goa Medical College where the part was reattached.
The right arm of St. Francis Xavier was severed in 1622
and taken to Rome for veneration. It is part of cultural lore that when asked
to sign its name, the severed arm signed the signature of Francis Xavier. The miracle
set Francis Xavier on the path to sainthood.
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* 1
Maccabees 7: 47 (Good News Bible). 1 Maccabees is an account of events over a
period of forty years from 175 BCE to
134 BCE. Pix of Judas Maccabeus before the army of Nicanor by Gustave Dore (1832-1883). Courtesy: https://thetorah.com/yom-nicanor-13th-of-adar/ Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, Panjim, Goa on Sunday, 4 August 2019.
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