Back in the late '90s when I was a kid, my dad once woke me up from my sleep, carried me in his arms to the balcony and said he’d show me a sight I would never forget. It was past midnight and all I could see was the night sky getting lit with incessant rains accompanied by lightning and thunder like the Olympic fireworks. He directed my gaze towards the ground, towards the bottom of the two flights of steps of our government dak bungalow. I could see that the bottom two steps were already submerged in water. Our domestic help, Mamai, a robust and muscular young man took out our Ambassador from the garage underneath our bungalow and drove out into the darkness to park it somewhere safe.
My mom and I had come visiting dad in his workplace in the beautiful river island of Majuli this summer vacation and this was going to be my first experience of a full-scale flood.
I woke up in the morning to a sight I’d indeed never forget. Everything around was submerged in water. About 15 of the 20 steps that led to our bungalow were under water. And on the railings of the steps, there were a thousand different varieties of insects, of all color and size, some shiny and some like made of glass, all piled up like bags of colorful crystal.
Every bungalow had a boat and when I asked Ma about it, I was told that dad had left for the hospital in it with Mamai quite early as he knew he’d have a busy day with this sudden flood. To my relief, Mamai came back later with a raft made of banana plant trunks specially made for me.
Sadly, not everybody lives in bungalows that shelter them from the flood. Overnight, your house, all your life’s belongings, your dearest treasure, everything gets washed away by the unforgiving Brahmaputra and its tributaries. As if this wasn’t enough misery, slowly all water-borne diseases and diseases from dead cattle and animals grip your tired body and drag you down.
As we celebrate India’s Independence all over the rest of India by flying kites, getting drunk on its eve, thronging to the nearest Big Bazaar or posting happy Independence Day updates on social media, more than 20 lakh people’s lives have been affected in Assam due to this ongoing flood. And the worst is still yet to come!!!
This is an annual occurrence now but still no machinery is in place. It takes a hundred dead bodies to draw attention of The Center. The Center has yet again failed its people, in more levels than one.
The Center has failed Kashmir and look at it now.
Where would you hoist your flag amidst all the ruins and blood in Kashmir? Where would you hoist your flag when all the land is submerged in flood in Assam? In your hearts, yes, but for how long???
Anyway, Happy Independence Day!!!
I woke up in the morning to a sight I’d indeed never forget. Everything around was submerged in water. About 15 of the 20 steps that led to our bungalow were under water. And on the railings of the steps, there were a thousand different varieties of insects, of all color and size, some shiny and some like made of glass, all piled up like bags of colorful crystal.
Every bungalow had a boat and when I asked Ma about it, I was told that dad had left for the hospital in it with Mamai quite early as he knew he’d have a busy day with this sudden flood. To my relief, Mamai came back later with a raft made of banana plant trunks specially made for me.
Sadly, not everybody lives in bungalows that shelter them from the flood. Overnight, your house, all your life’s belongings, your dearest treasure, everything gets washed away by the unforgiving Brahmaputra and its tributaries. As if this wasn’t enough misery, slowly all water-borne diseases and diseases from dead cattle and animals grip your tired body and drag you down.
As we celebrate India’s Independence all over the rest of India by flying kites, getting drunk on its eve, thronging to the nearest Big Bazaar or posting happy Independence Day updates on social media, more than 20 lakh people’s lives have been affected in Assam due to this ongoing flood. And the worst is still yet to come!!!
This is an annual occurrence now but still no machinery is in place. It takes a hundred dead bodies to draw attention of The Center. The Center has yet again failed its people, in more levels than one.
The Center has failed Kashmir and look at it now.
Where would you hoist your flag amidst all the ruins and blood in Kashmir? Where would you hoist your flag when all the land is submerged in flood in Assam? In your hearts, yes, but for how long???
Anyway, Happy Independence Day!!!
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