A marriage hall opened its doors,a city its heart

“In the afternoon,we decided that some alternative arrangement would have to be made as a good number of nursing homes in the city too had no accommodation left. Also,since the hall was bang opposite the hospital,it helped coordinate with various teams of doctors that had been called in from Allahabad and Kanpur,” said Raza.

So,three big dormitories,which are normally used for various marriage ceremonies,were turned into a make-shift hospital,each accommodating nearly 40 patients.

While the City Hospital sent the antibiotics,the injections,the medicines and the staff,the hall provided the injured food and water. “This place you see as a green lawn (at the hall) was milling with people,” said the ‘Sheher Qazi’ (the head qazi of the city) Abdullah Shaheed-ul-Islam. The head qazi added that even private doctors in the city came forward to help the injured.

Later,several of the injured were taken by family members to Kanpur and Allahabad while others needing treatment were shifted to the hospital. “As people began getting discharged from the hospital,those settled here were shifted there. By the first half of the day,all of them had been shifted,” said Raza.

Had it not been for the people of Fatehpur,from all walks of life,a tragedy such as this could not have been handled,said Shaheed-ul-Islam.