By Tarique Anwar and Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: Noorullah, his wife Sayyeda Khatoon and their five children, a family completely robbed of by the Kosi River in Madhepura district, are now waiting at the Patna railway station for a train to Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, in search of a distant relative, now the only shelter for the family with a young daughter of marriageable age.
The flood caused by the Kosi River, worst in the modern history of India, not only destroyed the family economically but also snatched their two young children – Amirullah (10) and Roohullah (12).
Noorullah and his family talking to TwoCircles.net at Patna Junction
Noorullah can’t forget the sound of swirling water which wiped out all his belongings and his two sons. “Hum isko kabhi nahin bhula sakte” (I can never forget it). Humko kabhi guman bhi nahin tha ki humko is bhayawah halat ko dekhna padega (I could have never imagined that I will be exposed to such a disastrous situation), he says with pain of the loss of two children clear on his face.
To Noorullah each recounting of the tragedy means to remember the pain and trauma his family sustained in the loss of two sons. His wife Sayyeda Khatoon has grown frail and is wearing gloomy look at her recollection of the tragic night. She bursts into tears when she remembers her two sons.
With the increased breakage in the Kosi embankment there was fear of flood in his village. But the night before the Mukhiya reassured everyone and told them not to worry about. But what happened in the early hours the next day proved every fear to be a premonition.
The flood caught them in sleep when their home and the village were drowned in the rising flood water.
They woke to the fact that their sons Amirullah and Roohullah were not there. The furious flood water had swept them away.
Noorullah couldn’t have gone to look for them as rest of his family was floating on their cots in the room. The water would have swallowed them down also had a boat of his neighbor not reached on time.
They spent 10 days in water on boat without much food and water. There was hardly any help from the government except the once-in-week airdropping of food packets by the Army planes.
There was no boat to rescue the trapped and no relief material for the survived.
The family also spent some days in the relief camp where it was only chaos and mismanagement that ruled and not the relief work.
Being frail and the only male in the family, Norullah and his family were pushed to a corner in the camp.
Even in the relief camp they had to starve some days and sleep hungry some nights because there was not sufficient food.
He didn’t see any hope for his family in the camp, so he decided to leave it.
He had planned to marry off Afrinda Perween (22), his oldest daughter. But whatever he had collected for the marriage has now been swept away by Kosi. Apart from that he is worried about the security of his family.
The family has somehow reached Patna. Noorullah doesn’t know exactly where to go in Azamgarh. His mother would tell him that somewhere in Azamgarh she has got some relatives.
Now they don’t have anything to cling to except the promises of the government and the pessimism and hunger which are a companion of people without any means.
List of organizations involved in Bihar flood relief:
http://www.twocircles.net/2008sep04/bihar_flood_organizations_collecting_funds_relief.html