Duty First, Tamil Nadu Inspector Keeps Father’s Funeral On Hold

N Maheshwari, a woman police officer of Tirunelveli armed reserved unit, led the Independence Day parade while maintaining her composure after her father had passed away a night before.  Maheshwari’s 83-year-old ailing father, Narayanaswamy, passed away on Friday night due to illness. On 14th August, when she returned home following her rehearsals, Maheshwari got to know about her father's demise.

An Unprecedented Scenario

The brave police officer maintained her calm and took the decision to not tell her seniors about her personal situation. She thought that things might go erroneous if a substitute leads the parade at the last moment. Maheshwari thus took a decision to serve  the nation first discharging upon her duties.

What You Should Know:

• N Maheshwari covered her grief for over 13 hours.
• She was apprehensive about the last minute substitution as it would have affected the parade.
• Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu also expressed condolences to her father on Twitter.

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The courageous soul reached the VOC stadium in Palayamkottai on Saturday morning. She embraced a facade of normalcy despite suffering an irreparable loss and led the the parade presenting the guard of honour to District Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish and Police Superintendent N Manivannan.

Maintained Composure

"Though she learnt of her father's death on August 14 night, she went for the funeral only after completing the parade (on Saturday morning) with a sense of patriotism," a police release said.

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The police department and even her peers who performed the parade with her got to know about her personal tragedy. Only when she left the ground in a hurry with her husband Balamurugan, a constable with the intelligence section of Tirunelveli city. The condolences and appraisals poured in from the police department and her colleagues.

The funeral happened in Vadamadurai, a town in Dindigul district, located over 200 kilometres away from Palayamkottai.

"I express my deepest condolences on the death of the father of Nellai Armed Police Inspector N Maheshwari. On the occasion of Independence Day mourning the death of her father, Maheshwari led the march to fulfil her duty," Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam tweeted.

Sanskriti Tiwari is an intern with SheThePeople