Renu Khatun has started to practise writing with her left hand within 48 hours of losing her right palm.

The 23-year-old nurse from East Burdwan’s Ketugram, whose right hand was chopped off from the wrist by her husband on Sunday morning, was in pain as she lay on a bed at IQ City Medical College and Hospital in Durgapur on Tuesday afternoon.

But she was not feeling hopeless.

“I will bounce back with my left hand,” she told this correspondent.

A little more than 48 hours ago, she had faced the brutal attack from her husband and two of his friends, who apparently tried to incapacitate her to prevent her from taking up the job of a nurse in a government hospital.

Renu’s husband Sariful Sheikh alias Sher Mohammed was arrested on Tuesday night, police said.

“I thank the doctors for saving my life.... Now I want to live and pursue my dream of working as a nurse,” Renu said, sitting on her hospital bed with a piece of paper and a pen.

“He (my husband) cut off my hand to stop me from working, but I will work and prove him wrong,” Renu added while scribbling Bengali alphabets on the piece of paper with her left hand.

“I will soon write a letter using my left hand to our chief minister and urge her to do something so that I can retain this job...,” Renu said.

Hospital officials, doctors and nurses said they were taken aback when Renu asked for a paper and a pen on Tuesday morning.

“A nurse went to give her medicine and she asked for a pen and paper, saying she would practise writing with her left hand.… Such tenacity is indeed rare," said a hospital employee, recalling the moment when around a dozen nurses and hospital staff surrounded her bed to witness how she scribbled with her left hand.

“She began practising from this morning and by around 12.45pm, she was writing words in Bengali and English,” said Babu Khan, a relative of Renu.

Renu said she was aware of the challenges facing her and the most difficult of them was to remain eligible for the government job for which she cleared an examination.

“My father used to work as a private security guard and worked very hard to spend on my education. I can't let him down because of my husband's dastardly act," she said.

Renu said that clearing the GNM (general nursing and midwifery) examination was not the sole ambition of her life as she wanted to complete graduation and post-graduation in nursing within a few years.

“I have a plan to do research on nursing after finishing my MSc…. I want to teach girls how to nurse patients. So, I need the job to earn some money for my further studies," Renu said.

A senior nursing official in the health department said a GNM diploma nurse usually gets Rs 26,000 per month on joining the service.

“The girl can get admission in BSC nursing after doing her GNM diploma…. The road for higher studies is also open.” she said.

A team of the West Bengal Commission for Women, headed by its chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay, met Renu at the hospital on Tuesday evening.

“She has requested us to help her in retaining the job for which she was selected.… I don’t know whether she can perform the role of a nurse because of her incapacitation. However, I will request the chief minister to consider her case," said Gangopadhyay.

“We want strong punishment for those who cut off her hand from the wrist," she added.

Renu, too, sought exemplary punishment for her husband and his friends. While recounting how her in-laws tormented her for her aspiration to work as a nurse, she said that the law should not spare them either.

The police have arrested Siraj Sheikh and Mehernika Biwi, Renu’s parents-in-law from a bus stop near Ketugram when they were trying to take a Murshidabad-bound bus. They were produced before the Katwa court which sent them to police custody for six days.

“We have arrested the parents-in-law,” said Dhruba Das, the additional superintendent of police in Katwa.