A lot of people went missing including the heavily pregnant sister of a friend. Mary Bayil, 44 was a Sunday School Teacher married to a Civil Servant. Her house had been burnt and in the ensuing melee, she was parted from her husband and her three children who had taken refuge in an army barrack.
Hoping that she would be found after things had settled down, the search for her proved abortive. Each time we phoned our friend, the answer was the same; she was nowhere to be found. In mid-January, we heard the good news that she had been found and that she had safely delivered a baby girl.
What made the story particularly interesting were the circumstances surrounding her safety. Like many other people, Mary had tried to escape from her house after it had been set on fire by the mostly Muslim mob. Given her state, she could not run as fast as others and became a sitting target for the mob.
Some Muslim ladies who were watching what was happening from their house and aware of what was about to happen quickly came out to her rescue and brought her inside their own home. Noticing that they had been seen by some of the mob, they dressed her up in the Muslim garb and moved her to another village. She had the baby in a hospital in the village and became seriously ill, drifting in and out of consciousness for weeks until she was found last week.
The Muslim women who saved her had their own Schindler moment and they delivered. They saved two lives and brought a wonderfully good twist to what was otherwise a tragic part of
