Kutch people have forgotten to cry

By Manas Dasgupta

BHUJ (KUTCH), FEB. 12. On January 29, three days after the killer earthquake rocked Kutch district of Gujarat, Niraj was taking a hand cart to retrieve some household goods from the collapsed house of his maternal uncle in Vaniavad in the heart of the ravaged old Bhuj town.

He had brought the cart from his home town, Mandvi, mounted on a truck because nothing was available in Bhuj where the life after the shock had come to a total standstill. As he was pushing the cart through the heaps of rubble, a man with both the hands swollen emerged from a nearby debris carrying two bundles wrapped in tattered clothes on his shoulders. His composure betrayed no emotion. ``Could you please lend me the cart for about an hour?'' the man requested Niraj. He thought for a moment, he was in a hurry as his uncle was waiting for the cart near the debris of what once was his house, but the helplessness of the man forced him to concede.

The man put the two bundles in the cart and turned towards Niraj. ``Could you please push the cart for me, my both hands are fractured,'' he requested Niraj. Niraj obliged. He thought the man was taking some of his household goods to some relief camps where he must have taken shelter.

But the man headed towards the crematorium with Niraj following with the cart. On reaching the crematorium, the man opened the bundles and Niraj was shocked to find what these contained - the crumpled bodies of his two daughters, one about six years old and the other two and half years, killed in the earthquake.

He sprinkled some water on the bodies and also on the cart. ``My only satisfaction is that I could cremate the bodies of my daughters myself,'' the man profusely thanked him and just disappeared in thin air before speechless Niraj could extend any more help.

Niraj is the son of the Industries Minister, Mr. Suresh Mehta, who hails from Kutch. He broke down while narrating the incident to some visitors and everyone among the listeners were touched by the plight of the man who lost everything in the quake.

But the only one not to react perhaps was Mr. Mahesh Gadhavi, a local journalist, whose house too in the same Vaniavad was razed to the ground in the quake. ``The people of Kutch have forgotten to cry,'' he said. The intensity of the shock and devastation in the tragedy have made them dumbfounded.

``I felt like crying when I saw my house being torn into pieces and crumbling down in front of my eyes but that was only for a few moments.'' Looking over he saw every other house around him have met the same fate.

There was a stunned silence, each of the survivor asking the other what they had lost. ``I had reasons to feel happy that at least I have not lost any of my family members. There were many other less fortunate than me whose near and dear ones lay buried under the debris of their own house.''

``No one cries in Kutch now, we only exchange notes who suffered what. We feel immensely happy when we come across someone we knew, happy that he was still alive,'' Mr Gadhavi said. There is nothing to rue over the loss of his house, he knew. There are others like the man in the crematorium who was happy that at least he could cremate the bodies of his dead children.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Don't play politics with relief: Sonia
Next     : Order on quo warranto against CJI reserved