KOCHI: Murugan, familiar to the public as ‘Theruvoram’ Murukan, thanks to the remarkable work undertaken by his eponymous charity, is now awaiting help from benevolent individuals to put his life back on track. The 35-year-old winner of the President’s National Award has become the victim of a cruel joke played by fate from whose clutches he had helped resurrect many a person. Murugan was attacked with iron rods by a mentally challenged person near the south railway station a few weeks ago when he tried to rescue him from the street. He suffered a broken knee in the process which required a major operation costing around `2 lakh to fix it.
The terrible experience notwithstanding, Murugan told Express he will resume the social work once he gets fit. He had been honoured with the President’s Award for social work for the welfare of women and children in 2012. Murugan, who drives an autorickshaw for a living, had to sell off his wife’s gold to pay a part of the hospital bill and the rest of the amount was footed by his in-laws. The cost of the treatment came to over `2.5 lakh.
“Since the doctor asked me to take rest for another three months I will not be able to drive my auto. It will be quite difficult for me to meet the daily expenses now,” he said.Though a few persons offered meagre sums on seeing his condition, Murugan is completely in the dark on how to meet his immediate expenses. “ At present, my wife’s parents are taking care of me. They had arranged around `2 lakh for my surgery. I simply don’t know how I’m going to repay the amount,” he said.