A well-known Indian academic died mid-sentence in a disturbing scene that was captured on live television.
Rita Jitendra was a guest on the 8:30 a.m. talk show “Good Morning J&K” on Monday when her head slumped backward, her mouth fell open and her eyes closed, as she suffered cardiac arrest, the Telegraph in India reported.
“She was telling us a few interesting things about her life and was looking absolutely normal,” said the anchor of the show, Zahid Mukhtar. “But suddenly she stopped talking and began having hiccups. We had to cut the interview [and switch to] a documentary to attend to her and take her to hospital.”
Jitendra, 81, who had retired as secretary of a government organization called Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages and made regular appearances on TV, was pronounced dead on arrival.
“She had a great association with television and her last words were on how she had started doing the dramas,” said Mukhtar.
Jitendra eerily discussed death shortly before appearing on the program.
On the drive over to the TV studio, she told a male pal that she hoped to die like A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former president of India — who died while delivering a lecture in 2015.
“She told him that Dr. Kalam had died while working. That is how she met her end too. She breathed her last in the studio itself,” said friend Hafiza Muzaffar.