The Hindu : Sonia wishes Noor a speedy recovery

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 21, 2003

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Sonia wishes Noor a speedy recovery

By Our Staff Reporter

A book, gifted by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, being shown to Noor Fatima at the Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

BANGALORE July 20. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, has wished Noor Fatima, the Pakistani girl recuperating after undergoing open-heart surgery at the Narayana Hrudayalaya here, a speedy recovery and urged the child and her parents to treat India as their second home.

Ms. Gandhi sent a letter and a book on Indian tourism to Noor through Margaret Alva, MP, on Sunday.

In her letter, Ms. Gandhi described Noor as a "very brave girl to have gone through such a difficult operation without making any fuss.'' "Everyone in India admires your courage and cheerfulness, and all hope that you will get well soon so that you can travel and see a bit of India."

If she visited the Taj Mahal, Ms. Gandhi wondered, she would "send me a photograph of yourself in front of the monument".

Ms. Gandhi said India and Pakistan shared many social and cultural traditions. "We are like members of one big family and we should live in peace and friendship.'' She asked Noor's family to visit India often.

Ms. Alva told presspersons that she had been sent to the hospital to hand over the gift and the letter. The MP had a glimpse of Noor through the glass screen in the door of intensive therapy unit, and then spoke with the girl's parents, Nadeem Sajjad and Tayyaba Nadeem, in their room in the hospital.

Meanwhile, asked when Noor would be shifted from the ITU, Rajesh Sharma, the paediatric cardiac surgeon who led the operation on her, said that she would probably be shifted on Monday.

And how long would she remain in the ward? "For as long as necessary...for a week perhaps,'' the doctor said.

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