Mohan Kuthar
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Apr 4: In an incident that came to light with some delay from Machila near Thokkottu here, the presence of mind exhibited by a six-year-old boy saved the life of his cousin aged four years.

The hero of the story is Muhammed Afran (6), a first standard student of Syed Madani Urdu higher primary school of Halekote. He became the saviour of Mohammed Rafi (4), a cousin.

M Muhammed from K C Road, father of Rafi, was on a visit to the residence of his in-laws at Manchila to take part in an auspicious occasion. Afran, elated at the arrival of Rafi at his home, took Rafi to a place located some distance away from his home, where a house is under construction. The small children in the locality had often seen that water for construction used to be supplied by pumping water from a water tanker which visited the site often. Rafi also had seen this, and he went near the water storage tank for washing his legs. He slipped and fell into the tank accidentally.

No elders were around at that time. Afran, who was shaken at this unexpected development, tried to pull Rafi out of water tank, but could not. He immediately ran to his home located about 150 metres away and informed the family members. By the time people of the family rushed to the spot and brought Rafi out, it was around 15 minutes since he fell into the tank, and the boy had become unconscious, and water had filled his stomach cavity.

The people then applied pressure on the stomach, forcing the boy to throw up the water, but he remained unconscious. Rafi was then taken to a private hospital located nearby, from where the boy was referred to a hospital in the city. Rafi has since fully recovered from this shocking experience.

Most of the time, when fellow children meet with some accident, the other children dither from calling the elders for the fear of punishment or chiding from the elders. However, because of the timely action of the above first standard student, a life could be saved. Headmaster of his school, K M K Manjanady, said that he is happy about the courage and conviction shown by this small boy in the face of adverse circumstances, and wished that this will prove to be inspirational for other children. He said he would be recommending for gallantry award for Afran.