Meet the two angels who saved my life

Until November 10th 2015, the only factor Lilian Mugure, Eva Manka and Chirag Parmar had in common was that they were involved in running their respective family businesses.

Lilian and Eva, sisters, run a motor vehicle spare parts business, while Chirag is the face of his family’s photo studio business.

It took a near-fatal experience for the three to meet and form a friendship forged on compassion, because in the end, this is what unites us all.

These two sisters are a moving example of what the simple act of kindness can achieve.

Lilian and Eva were driving along Ojijo road in Parklands a few weeks ago when Lilian, who was in the passenger seat, started feeling uneasy.

“It was about 7.45 pm. For some reason, I was feeling anxious, and felt that something was wrong, though I could not tell what. We were stuck in a traffic jam, and it was raining.

At some point, I thought I heard someone scream, and told my sister that. Eventually, we concluded that it was all in my head,” says Lilian, adding that her sister advised her to roll up the window if she was feeling uncomfortable.

Shortly after, they saw what they at first thought was a drunk man staggering down the road.

“He had lots of facial hair, and there were mud streaks on his face - he was quite a scary sight,” recalls Lilian.

“I remember telling my sister that the man looked drunk, since he kept staggering and falling down, picking himself up and trying to walk on again. Eventually, he fell down by our car, stood up, and pulled up his shirt and showed us a bleeding wound on his

stomach, he then shouted, “I have been shot!” narrates Eva.

JUMPED INTO ACTION

“We froze for a few seconds, and then I turned to my sister and told her we had to help him,” Lilian says.

By then, Chirag had asked for help from numerous drivers, who had either driven away or simply rolled up their car windows.

Once they made the decision to help Chirag out, the two sisters followed him in their car, since he had moved on, assuming that they too would not help him. When they got to him, he was lying on the Ojijo road roundabout, and people were beginning to

gather around him, and a woman was pressing onto his wound, trying to stop his bleeding. The two quickly got out and asked those around to help them lift him into their car.

“The car is so tiny, we had trouble fitting his legs in!” remembers Eva with a smile.

Hard to believe, but as Chirag was being lifted into the car, an opportunistic thief tugged his phone out of his hands and made away with it.

Meanwhile, one of the drivers who had witnessed the incident got the attention of a traffic policeman nearby, and asked him to help clear the traffic so that the two women could get Chirag to hospital.

“We got into the car and my sister took off like a rally driver, the only thought occupying her mind being how to get the bleeding man in the back seat to hospital as fast as possible.

As she drove, I stuck my head out of the window, and began shouting like a maniac, asking other drivers to move out of the way - we must have made quite a sight,” says Lilian, laughing at the memory.

Chirag says that one of the passengers in a car that cut him and his “ambulance” off in traffic later apologised. He and the others in the car had assumed the two women were drunk.

HUMAN SIREN

This passenger got to learn of their mistake after reading Chirag’s moving account on his ordeal in a Facebook post that went viral.

The three now joke that Lilian was the “siren” in their improvised ambulance.

“I was driving so fast, that I missed the entrance to MP Shah Hospital, but we finally got there, and literally bullied our way in and got attended to,” says Eva.

On the way to the hospital, Lilian kept encouraging Chirag to talk, to keep him conscious.

“I alternated between yelling out of the window and popping my head to the backseat, talking to him and pulling him up when he began to slip down,” recalls Lilian.

By the time they got to hospital, Chirag’s family, friends and the police had arrived, since Chirag had managed to call his sister and inform her of what had happened immediately after he was shot.

It was not until Eva and Lilian sat down for coffee later that night, that the reality of the incident hit them.

“When all this was happening, it seemed as if it was happening to someone else. Before, we had only seen such things in movies, but this time, we were the main “actors” in this movie,” says Lilian.

So, why did the sisters spring into action when many had not?

“When people ask us why, we simply say, why not? I think it is because of our upbringing. My mother was, and still is a very generous woman, and is a great influence in our lives.

We are Christians as well, so our faith must have played a role too. For us, there was never a question of not helping him,” says Eva, who is still astounded at the unwillingness of other motorists to help.

“If you were there that day, what if Chirag had been your father, brother or son? Someone you love dearly?” asks Lilian.

Lilian adds that the excuse many make for not stopping to help an injured person is that they would have a police case to answer in case the person dies on the way to hospital, an excuse she thinks is ridiculous.

“The police would not arrest you and lock you up because you tried to assist someone, would they?”

The sisters went to see Chirag in hospital a few days later, and agreed that they would meet again once he recovered. During the one week that he was in hospital, Chirag’s grateful family kept them updated on his recovery journey.

This interview, done five days ago, was the first time the three had met face-to-face since he was discharged from hospital a week earlier. The three look forward to the beginning of a beautiful friendship forged from one selfless act of kindness.

Though the robber’s bullet raptured Chirag’s colon and grazed his spine, there was thankfully no more damage. Today, Chirag walks with a slight limp, but is undergoing physiotherapy sessions, with his doctor very optimistic about a full recovery.

He has forgiven the man who shot him.

Chirag describes himself as a spiritual person with an unfailing belief that one does not need religion to be a kind human being.

“I am a spiritual person, I realised that if I did not forgive him, I would not heal. The positive energy from my friends and family also helped. During the one week I was in hospital, I had almost 500 visitors  - the support was overwhelming,” he says.

He hopes that his story, and that of the two angels that saved his life will inspire other Kenyans to find it in their hearts to help those who need it.

***

Here is part of Chirag’s Facebook post, which captured the hearts of many

Tuesday, November 10th 2015…

It was just another day in Nairobi. I woke up, had my breakfast, showered and left for work. I run a small studio at Adams Arcade, Ngong Road – Studio Mona. My mother had invited me home that evening for a small prayer and offerings.

Even though I had plans, I made sure I fulfilled my mother’s wish.

At about 7pm I left home (in Westlands) with my mother’s blessing and went to meet a friend (in Parklands) who owed me some money. I collected 80, 000/- from him and was on my way to meet another friend for dinner in Lavington.

I ended up in traffic on the slip off Forest road connecting to the Ojijo/ Ngara roundabout. It must have been about 7:30pm. It was pouring cats and dogs.

There I was, sitting in my car for about 10 minutes in stand still traffic when I noticed a man wearing an off white rain jacket walk passed me. I didn’t think anything of it, but when I glanced at my side mirror, I noticed he had turned around and had started walking back.

Within a few seconds he was knocking on my window with his gun and I remember thinking to myself, “Today is my day, just another day in Nairobbery.”

And we’ve all been schooled on cooperation; just give them what they want. So I opened my window a few inches and he said, ‘Leta kila kitu! (Give me everything!)’ and cocked his gun. I don’t have much practice with guns, but I do know when a gun is live.

So I reached into my pocket and grabbed all the money I could get my hands on and gave it to him. It must have been about 10, 000/-. I saw him drop a little on the floor and the rest he shoved into his pocket.

I thought, “Ok that must be good enough, he’ll let me go.” But he wasn’t done. His arm came straight back into the window and started tugging on my Silver chain, banging my head against the window.

To ease his robbery, I opened my window fully and he finally managed to take off the chain. He shoved that into his pocket as well, all the time with the gun in his right hand. Now that the window was fully open, he managed to get a little closer and rested his gun on my stomach.

He asked for my phone, to which I replied, ‘it’s an iPhone,’ and he immediately realized it would be of no use to him. ‘Ah sitaki,’ he said. He then noticed the ring on my index finger and began pulling on that aggressively. It was too tight to take off but he was determined. He kept tugging.

This is when I think I made the biggest mistake; I looked directly into his eyes. All I saw was hunger, fear and suffering. He must have been doing this for a reason. Maybe his family hadn’t eaten for a few days. Maybe he had a young child to feed at home.

Maybe he had hospital bills to pay. Who knows? I felt his pain and gestured to him that I still have 80, 000/- in my pocket, leave the ring. Before I could even reach for the money, he shot me in my abdomen…

Click HERE to read Chirag’s full account of his incident.