Sify Rowing Team Saves Woman From Suicide

In what could have been an incident fit for primetime news on TV, Sify 'A' fours dramatically rescued a woman, a mother of three, from a suicide attempt. On the evening of 8th September, the 'A' fours team ( consisting of Nikhil, Kiruba, Tarun, Srinidhi & Wasim ) and 'C' pairs ( Navneet, Praveen Charles and Roshan ) had gone out for their practice outing.

While the boats were underneath the Kotturpuram bridge , the place where the races normally begin, the members of the team saw something fall into the river with a huge splash. For a second, nobody could fathom what it was .... after a few seconds, much to the amazement of both the teams , a ladies head bobbed out of the water.

It took a little bit more time to realize that the lady's intention of committing suicide. Immediately both the teams maneuvered the boat near the lady, the fours boat reaching her faster. We had to take the boat carefully so as not to hurt the lady who is already gasping and panting for air. We moved the boat close enough to let her catch the oar and we grabbed her and got her to cling on to the boat.

The boat being narrow and delicate on balance we could not lift her into the boat. By this time , the onlookers on the Kotturpuram bride had grown from a handful to a mob. It was really looking like a movie shooting scene.

Around that time, a sculler ( single rower ) came by and asked him to quickly rush back to the boat club and alert the authorities there. He did and a motor boat was summoned to come and pick up her up. further drama took place meanwhile.

We managed to deftly move the boat towards one of the pillars of the bridge and made the lady cling on to the platform of the pillar. Just as we did that, the wind started to drift the boat away from the pillar and I lost my grip on the lady. And much to our horror, the lady slowly started to lose her grip and we feared she'd go under water again. But Nik, the cox and the rest of the team members kept their cool and backed the boat to the pillar again. This time, I jumped off the boat to the pillar platform and lifted the lady out of the water and made her sit in the narrow space available.

By this time , the motor boat had arrived and we shifted the semiconscious woman to it and safely transported the boat to the bank where scores of people were waiting. We could hear the police sirens on the bridge and as usual our Indian police comes in when the heroes have done their part.

By the time we headed back to the raft, the news had spread in the boat club and an appreciative crowd welcomed us with an applause. More than all this, all of us had a warm feeling within for doing a good deed.