Helped mishap victim, but no help for him

On Krishnan Street in Chennai’s West Mambalam locality, everyone knows where P Thirumalai lives. “Oh, the boy who went to Delhi,” says a neighbour, when asked for directions. “Down that lane,” points another. It’s been 10 years since Thirumalai received the National Bravery Award, but his family and friends haven’t forgotten his extraordinary kindness. Unfortunately,neighbourly pride can do little other than to swell hearts. “Not much haschanged in my life,” says Thirumalai, 25, who is a relationship manager inan insurance firm. He describes his dismayed realization he was on his own,just months after getting the award. “I thought I’d get support fromthe government, maybe a scholarship to help me with my studies, but thatdidn’t happen,” he remarks, flipping through a red velvet album ofphotographs of his triumphant Delhi sojourn in 2001.He tells hisstory with practised ease. “I’ve told many people, many times.First, the Automobile Association of South India, then the ICCW. Then, Ireceived the Jeevan Raksha Padak from President K R Narayanan. All of themwanted to confirm the story and spoke to witnesses too. And then there werepress interviews,” he says.It is a remarkable story. In August 1999,Thirumalai, then 14 and in class VIII, was on his way back from school when hesaw a cyclist run over by a bus. “Everyone gathered round but no one wentup to help. When I rushed forward, they told me to go home as I was tooyoung,” he recalls.But the teenager was a member of the JuniorRed Cross at school and knew basic first aid. He crawled under the bus to pullout the man, bandaged his bleeding head and leg and asked the gawking bystandersto help get him to hospital. “But again, no one came forward. He was veryheavy, but I managed to hoist him onto my shoulder and carry him to the hospitalabout 10 minutes away,” he says. There, he ran into anotherroadblock with doctors expressing reluctance to take on the victim of anaccident. “I showed them my Red Cross ID and insisted they admit him.Doctors then told me that if I’d brought him five minutes later, theywouldn’t have been able to save him,” says Thirumalai, sitting onthe threadbare sofa in his dingy sitting room. He has the regulation newspaperclippings of his moment of glory, as do other bravery award winners. Stuffed ina plastic bag, they share a steel cupboard with the maroon blazer he wore at theceremony. Photographs of the big day line the wall above the sofa.“My family is not rich, so we really thought the award wouldhelp me a lot,” says Thirumalai, who is doing BSc Maths by correspondencefrom Madras University. In 2001, Sharadha Films made a 35mm Tamilshort documentary on the incident. It was called ‘Thudippu’ andstarred Thirumalai, but the young man expresses disappointment: “Nothingcame of it.”As with the award. Even the pass guaranteeing freerail travel expired when he turned 18.