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Journalism of Courage
As bodies rapped in black plastic sheets were being stretchered out of the morgue in Rayagada district headquarter hospital Sunday evening, S Trinath’s mother was getting increasingly anxious by the hour.
“No one is able to say anything about my son. Two of his friends who were with him in the train have died. But no official here has any clue about Trinath,” said Sukanti, mother of the 22-year-old clerk working in a court in Bissamkataka area of Rayagada district since the last one year.
“Can you get the photographs of those being treated in Visakhapatnam and Parvatipuram hospital for me?” she asked.
Sukanti was planning to get her son married off this year and had found a match. “He had called me…but after the accident, his phone is off,” she added.
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The Bhubaneswar-bound Hirakhand Express that derailed in Vizianagaram district last night, claimed 39 lives.
B Nilamadhav Patra, who worked in a plumbing company in Rayagada district was among those killed. The earning of his father B Subash Patra, a marginal farmer in Digapahandi block of Ganjam, was not enough and Nilamadhav used to contribute to the family income.
“He had boarded the train at Junagarh station and was on his way to Berhampur. This morning, when we heard about the train accident, we called on his mobile phone. It was switched off. When I came here, I was told Nilamadhav has died,” said his father, trying hard to fight back tears.
The accident also stole the breadwinner of the Swain family of Puri’s Pipili block. Sushant Kumar Swain, 38, had come to Bhawanipatna two days ago to oversee some civil work he had taken on contract. His younger brother, Ganguram, had called him a few hours before the train left Bhawanipatna.
“His wife would not be able to bear the shock. He has two children,” said Ganguram.
A group of Mahadalit honey-sellers from Bihar’s Begusarai district too lost eight members in the mishap. The honey-sellers from Mirzapur village in Bihar’s Begusarai had come to Odisha to sell honey and had boarded the train in Bhawanipatna town last evening.
“We were huddled near the toilet of the general compartment. The next thing I remember is a deafening sound. I passed out. I don’t remember how I was rescued,” said Chhotu Kumar, an 18-year-old honey seller from Mirzapur, lying inside the Rayagada hospital with deep gashes on his head.
Lying on a bed, Bijay Kumar Bhuyan (26), said he was lucky to survive. “I was trying to hold the railing after the bogie derailed. I saw a old woman lying dead at my feet. With great difficulty I managed to get out. I am lucky to be alive.”
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