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Though Jismy had come home from the pond with a feeling of achievement and satisfaction, her mother greeted her initially with scolding. However, not long after, her mother held her close and told her how proud she was of her.daughter.
The reason for mother’s initial scolding was because Jismy had risked her life to rescue two young children who were about to drown in a nearby quarry pond. And her admiration for Jismy was because she had been instrumental in saving two lives.
That day Jismy had gone to the pond along with her grandma for washing cloths. Not long after, her neighbour Rekha came there with her two young children. After playing with them for a while Jismy went on to help her grandma.
A short while later she was startled by the shriek of Rekha. When she looked, the two children were drowning in the pond and the panic-stricken Rekha had jumped into the water not realizing the depth of the water.
Seeing the three of them being drowned, Jismy did not hesitate. With the confidence born of swimming across the pond many times, she jumped into the water and tried to rescue the two children.
But her effort to rescue both children simultaneously proved to be a bad strategy. As the desperate children clung to her, she could not help them or herself. She then pulled them out of water one at a time. And by then two others had gathered and they rescued Rekha.
Her effort was extolled in the newspapers the next day and she was felicitated by the people of the locality. Assistant Collector of Thrissur, who attended the function, promised to take efforts to bring the bravery to the attention of the Central Government.
Jismy was honoured with Geetha Chopra award for her act of bravery.
Courtesy: Shilpa B. Raj (text), Sreekanth Kalarikkal / Harikrishnan (photo), Vanitha, March 15-31, 2011
