I am a senior doctor at one of the prestigious Medical Institutions of the city. I have had taught several batches of students and dissected numerous cadavers since the period of my own education.

But a certain case has been engraved on my mind such that it would haunt me for ever.

I lead a batch of MBBS students towards a cadaver to dissect. It was a fresh (undissected) body and was lying unidentified and unclaimed for more than a month in the mortuary of our hospital. Finally, it was handed over to us for studies.

"Please settle down soon and let the shorter people be in front. We are going to learn a very important topic today and I don't want anyone to miss out any detail.", I said.

They all shuffled a bit and the shorter students came nearer to the dissection table.

When I noticed that everyone was set, I began, "Okay. So, first of all, we are going to remove the skin from this part..." "No! Wait!", a girl shouted from beside me. We were all startled at her sudden outburst. One of the girls struggled her way to the front and stood beside the cadaver, near its head.

"No! D-don't touch him. Please.. Please, don't touch him.", she said between sobs.

She took one of the cadaver's hands in one of her own and touched its face with the other tenderly. We all were surprised at her gesture.

"What's wrong with you Alina?", I asked.

"Sir! This.. He is my husband.", she blurted.

*Silence* A deadly silence fell in the room.

"Sir Please don't let anyone touch him. I want to take him home and give him a proper funeral. Please, sir, please.", She begged.

"What do you mean he's your husband? This body has been lying in the mortuary for almost 2 months. If he was your relative, why didn't anyone search for him? We checked up in all the police stations to find if there is any missing r0eport in this duration. There was none.", I explained.

"He's been missing for 5 years, sir. We had lodged a complaint in the police station of my native city. You can check it out. I will give you the details.", she told me while guarding the body like it was her child.

"Still, I insist. There must be a mistake.", I said.

"There's no way I won't recognise my husband, with whome I lived for 10 years.", she screamed.

"Umm okay. This is serious. Guys! Everyone please go back to your classroom and we will continue this lesson some other day. Alina, you please drink some water and cakm down. I will call up the authorities anf we will discuss the matter with you.", I said, trying to handle the situation.

After some time, the higher authorities of the hospital and college gathered in the dissection lab. Alina had not left the body's side for even a second.

We had a long discussion for many hours. The body was officially ours and now, it would be difficult to hand it over to the family. She didn't really have a solid proof. The FIR, she mentioned was of no use since they had the particular document misplaced.

I was shocked to see the pointers she gave. Though the birth marks and moles were not visible anymore, we could easily locate the suture marks on the head. She said that, according to her mother-in-law, he had fallen from a bed when he was 2-3 years old and got the sutures on his head. The mark sure seemed too old. Moreover, she smartly pointed that he had a part of his 11th rib missing on the right side. He had got it removed surgically since it was badly injured in an accident about 7 years back.

These sure helped her case a lot. But the law demanded more solid proofs. "The umbilical cord!", she exclaimed. "Our third child was born in mumbai. Since it was a big hospital, they had advised us to preserve his birth cord for future. You can use it for DNA fingerprinting.", she said.

"Hey, if you have children, why do we need the umbilical cord? We can establish his parentage directly, right?", one of the officials said wisely.

A dark shadow fell on her features she looked down as if to control her emotions. After a moment of silence, she said, "None of our children are alive."

I heard a gasp then silence...

Her case was soon presented before the court and many dark pages of her life opened up.

She was married at the age of 11. A year after her marriage, her parents died in a train accident. She was an only child. She had her first pregnancy at  the age of 13. She had given birth to a pair of fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. About 3 years later, she gave birth to another son in Mumbai, where they had gone for a vacation. This is where they had preserved the umbilical cord which help in identifying the body.

About 6 years ago, i.e. two years after her second child birth, Alina had gone out to buy something while her husband was at work. She had left the children in the care of her mother in law. When she returned about 2 hours later, she found that her house was on fire, surrounded by a crowd and her mother in law was screaming frantically outside and trying to go in the house. The people were holding her back and assuring her that the rescue team would save 'them'.

She learnt later that her mother in law was working in the kitchen when a vegetable vendor came by. She had left the stove burning and went out of the house to buy some tomatoes. All of a sudden, the house caught fire. They could hear the screams of the children. But now, nothing. An hour later, the corpses of her 3 children were retrieved with 3rd degree burns. It was established that the cause of fire was a leaking gas which perhaps caught fire when the kids flicked a switched on or something.

Alina was frantic. She was unconscious for almost a day or two. When she came to senses, they were holding a funeral for the kids. Her mother in law couldn't handle the guilt and the death of the children at her hands and lost Her sanity. Her husband became awfully silent and detached. She had to drink down her sorrows to take care of the mad woman now.

It went on for about a year and then the husband suddenly disappeared without a trace. He had left a note saying that he could no longer live in the shadows of his babies' deaths. Alina had lodged a missing complain in the nearby police station. They gave up their search within a few months saying that 'the husband did not want to be found!' The mother in law's condition worsened after that.

Alina had taken up a job to fend for herself and her mother in law. She had passed out her 10 just before her second delivery. After which, she dedicated her time to the family. But then, a year after her husband went missing, she decided to resume her education so as to have some purpose of living.

She joined a government college and completed her intermediate plus secured a seat in a good MBBS college 2 years ago.

She requested the court to hand the body over to her so she could give it the funeral it deserved.

She was absent from college for about a month after the hearing. None of her classmates knew her whereabouts. They had no way to contact her probably.

When she finally came back, her eyes were more dead than before. I took her aside and pursuaded her to open up to me.

I found out that her mother in law broke down on seeing her son's body. Even though she was mentally imbalanced, a mother can always recognise her son, it seems. She must have been thriving on the hope of his son's return all these years. For a few hours, she was almost cured of her mental illness, Alina said. She behaved like a normal person would. She cried a lot. She blessed Alina and begged her to promise that she would start her life anew and not waste it away in grief. That night was the first when she had slept peacefully in years, and the last when  she was awake. The sun never rose for her again. Alina said that the tranquillity on her dead face assured that she was right to fight for her husband's dead body. The woman had finally got her salvation.

I had no words for Alina. She is the strongest person I had ever come across. Nothing I say would ease her pain even an ounce. She was far superior to me. All I could do was assure her that I was always on her side.

I hope she will carry on her bravery and become the doctor everyone would be proud of. I hope she meets a good guy in future and have a complete family once again.

She would not accept any aid from me. All I can give her is a moral support and guide her through her career.

She's a warrior! She will come out triumphant in life. I just know it...

Since days of yore, cadavers have been used for teaching and learning. But this cadaver taught me more than just human anatomy. I had conditioned myself to look at them like specimens because I knew that if I looked at them as people, I might never be able to cup them open.

But this incident proved me wrong. I learnt that they too, not very long ago, had life and lived it like you and me. They had families, personalities and identities. They all have a story behind them.

I don't know how this incident affected the other students or other people who have either witnessed the incident, lived them, or read about them like you. But I know for sure that, after today, I will never look at a cadaver in the same way...