Venezuela native and CMT producer Santos Lopez clings to wife, compassion after Mumbai attacks

Rudrani Devi shot twice, point-blank, by AK-56

Jim Ridley tells this story of Venezuela-born CMT producer Santos Lopez and his wife Rudrani Devi, who was injured in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November, 2008. Ridley frames the story as a tale of the couple's devotion in this week's Valentine's Day edition of the Nashville Scene.

Excerpts:

[T]heir romance was legend, even beyond their circle of friends—who ranged from staff at CMT, where Santos works as a producer, to Rudrani's celebrity clientele as a spiritual instructor.
...
They had been in each other's orbit without knowing since the 1980s, when the Venezuela-born Santos was a spike-haired fixture in Nashville rock clubs and Andi fronted an all-girl rock combo called the Paper Dolls. As a couple, they were now so close that from the moment Rudrani left for India, Santos wore two watches, one with his time, the other reading her time in Mumbai. He would have been with her, had he been able to get off work.
...
The terrorists had shot Rudrani twice, point-blank, with an AK-56. One bullet entered her right arm, just below her shoulder, and she pulls back her sleeve to show where it ripped through her triceps. Another bullet entered her right thigh, and still another burned her neck.
...
The attack continues to affect Rudrani and Santos' life in ways large and small. The couple's insurance did not cover the out-of-country medical expenses, and just last week Rudrani was forced to close her small clinic for spiritual instruction. (A fund has been set up to meet her expenses: Visit rudranidevi.com for more information.)
...
Above all, they refuse to be held captive by thoughts of vengeance. Rudrani says she forgave whoever shot her the night it happened. Santos, despite the immediate fury in his "Latin alpha male blood," eventually followed the lead of her compassion. His main regret, he says, is that he vowed at their wedding to protect her, and wasn't there in her moment of need.

She says he was.

Read the full story in the Scene here.

Also reporting on the November attacks from this couple's perspective were NewsChannel5 (also here), WSMV, The Oak Ridger, ABC News, and others.

Photo by Keerthivasan Rajamani. Licensed under Creative Commons.