Homeless After Blaze: Sleepless in Mangolpuri, coming to terms with loss

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“Thieves are roaming around this place. People are sleeping with whatever they are left with and if they sleep in the tent, there will be nothing left,” says Bhagwan, who is looking for two suspected thieves along with fellow Mangolpuri residents Pawan and Laxman.

At about 12.30 am, 25-year-old Rama walks with her toddler and searches frantically for her 5-year-old daughter who was last seen walking towards tent area. She is accompanied by her mother. “My daughter walked towards the jhuggi, we can’t find her now,” says Rama. Bhagwan loudly makes an announcement to inform others.

The narrow lane in Mangolpuri leads to piles of scattered debris. Some are sleeping on polythene sheets placed on the debris, while some are on borrowed cots.

Mina, 26, is watching over her five children who are sleeping. She continuously uses a hand-fan to keep mosquitoes away. She has used her stoles to cover her children. “My eyes are hurting as I haven’t slept for the last 24 hours, but I want my children to sleep in peace.”

In a corner, some people are sleeping on a pavement which was not damaged in the fire that broke out at about 1.30 am.

Most of the people in the area work in the nearby plastic industry. For most of them, the daily earning is not more than Rs 200. Residents claim almost all of them have lost their refrigerators and television sets. They say all they are left with are melted utensils and “memory of their house”.

Meena, 19, is also awake at 1 am. She says she needs to be with her ailing mother, the family’s sole breadwinner. She says the slum has been affected thrice by fire.

“When a fire broke out in 2006, the damage was much more. Nothing was left. It seems there is a curse on the slum,” she says. The authorities are yet to ascertain the cause of the fire.

At about 2 am, three police officials, eyes red from lack of sleep, are spotted sitting near the entrance to the makeshift tent. Inside the tent, civil defence and disaster management personnel lie down on the floor after hours of salvage work.

Suddenly, a frantic Rama walks in and tells one of the police officials her daughter is missing.

“Your daughter slept here more than an hour ago,” says a girl from inside the tent, uncovering the child’s face. Relief washes over Rama’s face.