A page from a book lies on the floor of the one-hall school,the verses of the national anthem printed on it. Close to the book are a couple of empty plates on which two of the schools pupils had been served Tuesdays midday meal. Books and notebooks are scattered across the 20ft×15ft community hall from where the newly created school was running. Gandaman primary school,opened by the government this year,is yet to have a building of its own. Until the food poisoning deaths,it had enrolled 150 children. The kitchen is at one end of the 20×6 verandah. On Tuesday,the day rice and soyabean curry are served,135 of the 150 pupils were present. As the number of plates was limited,they were to be rotated. Over 60 children were served in the first lot. Some of them started complaining of giddiness and nausea within 15 minutes of eating the food,and the school administration halted the serving. Within two hours,parents and guardians were rushing children to the nearest private and government hospitals at Masrakh,8 km from the village. On Wednesday,the body of one of the students who had eaten the midday meal was buried in front of the school. This was to serve the government a constant reminder about the status of the midday meal; villagers wanted a graveyard at the school. Eventually,the field in front of the school,barely 100 metres from the building,did become a graveyard with villagers burying 21 bodies,two of them in one grave. As long as villagers children study in this school,they will be reminded whom they lost because of government negligence, says Vinay Singh,who spent the night at Masrakh hospital trying to save children. I saw them gasping for breath. I saw them dying in the absence of doctors. I called private doctors to the government hospital so that they could be shifted to Chhapra or Patna, says Singh,who is from a neighbouring village. Villagers have been blaming school principal Mira Rai for running away after the tragedy. She too is from Gandaman. Her neighbours say they have been looking for her; all villagers say they have no clue where she is. The school has another teacher,who was not involved in serving the meal. Manoj Yadav points at several tiny religious structures in front of the school,saying this is where villagers observe chhath puja,to the sun. We will always see the graves of our children in front of the school, says Yadav,who has lost one of his relatives.
