superman

Sixteen minutes has been passed since Bhopal express has leaved Bhopal junction and now it is moving over rail in its full pace. passengers with a confirmed ticket has already  grabbed their berths, those in waiting lists are seeking for a space to spend the night and me with an RAC status is sitting on  berth  waiting curiously  for  my co passenger  with whom ,I  am going to share other half of lower berth. Half an hour has passed and till now no one comes with a claim .I realised that boarding a train is not an ecstasy every single time. The feeling is slightly different from one which is induced, when I board a train to jehanabad .It just lack excitement, zest and zeal.

No adieu to Bhopal, no heave baggage’s, no hefty lunch, as I did when I leave for home. It is something like “I just have to go”. Anyway it is just eleven hours journey and time when I woke up in the morning, some best looking people in form of Sonam and Sanjeev Bhaiya will be waiting for me at Delhi station in order to receive, as Delhi is still a city to explore.

Several stations has passed when an old man in his sixties arrived with a ticket in his hand and accedes .Is it your birth?

Of course mine, but a Rac. I replied.

That means you have to spend whole night with this old man..Uncle said.

 Not at all, you still look young. I said... folding my spread legs over berth so that he can sit over the remaining half.

After a hiatus of five minutes, I dare and asked “uncle are you from Bhopal”?

Why you hate Bhopal’s?  Uncle replied without sparing any moment.

No, who I am to abhor Bhopal’s and am in love with town .I asked it because from accent it seems that you are from Bengal. I said with an agony in voice.

Your guess is right son; I am from Burdwan district, West Bengal. But I am in Bhopal from last thirty four years. I have changed the place but hapless in changing the accent. Anyway do you know Burdwan? Uncle asked me.

Jee uncle, I know Burdwan .It is near chittranjan or probably chittranjan is in Burdwan district. I said that my birth place is chittranjan or in some sense, we two share same motherland .When I am talking about my birthplace, I felt an excitement in his eyes but it all turns into disappointment when I  said that I am  Bihar native. My mother’s father was an employee in CLW, so I used to visit there on a regular basis. A  Long introduction of mine is enough to maze the aura amiable. From initial talks of Bengal sweets, fishes, communist’s government and Bhopal’s weather, poha –jalebi, he moved to barriers and difficulties, he faced in his life. First of all a child marriage and 2 kids by the age of twenty two. So in order to earn his livelihood he leaved his home state Bengal and settled in Bhopal in year 1978.uncle cites that in starting days, h e worked as a D grade employee in a government sector with plenty of money in salary. He continued his studies and by the end of the year he was appointed as Head clerk in Bhopal post office. He owned a house and sent his kids to a convent school too.

Everything was going good; suddenly his whole world had been changed after 2^nd December 1984.  night of  Bhopal gas tregdy,biggest industrial disaster in human history. He describes 3^rd December morning as more terrifying than 2^nds night. Roads were full of dead bodies, some died due to choke throats, some due to heart failures or swell eyes and some due to rampage broken after leakage .Innocent Bhopal’s had no idea about methyl isocyanides, only known fact to them was that      “liquid dynamite” had been busted in Union Carbide factory and was going to give them a death similar to that of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. So many people’s preferred poisons over heart or throat pains or blisters over whole body and  getting crushed under some ones feet.

.According to rumours, a riot was broken too and a number of people were threatened by vandals in search of food ,clothes or other valuable stuffs. There was no one to help needy ones, neither cops nor government .Due to lack of first aid death tolls were more than that of isocyanides clouds and by every passing day, there was a hike in number of victims, with no sign of help in any form.

 Uncle said that at the time of disaster, they were in Shymala hill area which was mildly affected in comparison to Old Bhopal which was most affected. He bolted his whole family in house with all doors and windows shunted, due to fear of cyanide clouds. They was a fear in drinking water too as what will happen next moment. Though children were hard to control, as they were juveniles and had no idea what was going outside room walls. It was 7^th of December, when he escaped from his home for first time. His friend Ayub sayeed’s twin kids, who were two years old had died and Ayub’s wife lost her vision too. To pay homage to Ayub, he visited “Himidiya Hospital” whose floors were full of dead bodies without any identity and known by a chest numbers, without any name or family to claim and perform after death rituals. Days were full of tacit mourning sounds of women’s and childerns, some due to death of their loved ones and some due to staged stomach.

Everyone had their own grief story .It seems that half of Bhopal was laid in graves and for days even birds were not found making chirping sounds .Government stats register a total death of 3000 but in actual it was over twenty thousand humans and same number of pets. The city of Bhopal which was laurelled for its integrity, live up, lakes and greenery was shrouded in black clouds of       Iso- cyanides

At that juncture of life, he decided to abscond from Bhopal and went back to Bengal .He said that was the harshest decision he ever took in his entire life. A city where he possessed a house of dream, good salary job and safe kid’s future and then in a single night everything was ruined. The worst part of story map was waiting for him on his Bengal arrival .Everyone was giving him a suspicious look that t family was infected with gas and will lead to a similar havoc in the village too. Even close friends and pals treated them in same eccentric way. After spending one month he found no sign of relief, his family and friends continue their taunting .If life was worst in Bhopal then it was hell in Bengal .Gas will silenced him in a single second but in village he was dying with every passing second and minute. He sold out his entire farming land in pennies and with the money earned he boarded from Calcutta (now a day Kolkata) to Bhopal, train was totally blank because no one dares to visit Bhopal. He said that that was last time he was in Bengal, he never returned back since last 30 years. Bengal which was once his ancestor’s land, where he grown up from a child to a young mature, is now an anonymous place in the world map. There was an untold silence in words and immense pains in his eyes. The time he returned to Bhopal with his wife and two kids, a lot had been changed .There was a never ending peace in ambience, government reacted late but in both efficient and effective way, city was full of relief camps, medical facilities and asylums for needy ones.

 Conversation will go longer if ticket collector didn’t arrive to examine the tickets .uncle asked TC to grant a whole berth  for him as he has knee problems but Tc  moved ahead with word “sorry ,no room available”. Uncle once again initiated the paused converasation.He said, Later Ayub and his wife shifted in their house and have a girl who was married in 2010.It was really hard to find a groom for their girl because no one was interested in marring a girl whose parents were victims of gas tragedy .Now the worst part of life is over, both of his kids have grown up into adults and they are doctors. Uncle is visiting Delhi to attend one of his grandson birthday ceremony . One by one light across the compartment got diminished and time by watch is over 12 o’clock. I decided to leave my half berth for him. I waved “Good Night uncle “and moved to my friend Vinit berth that is in same train but in different compartment.

 Tonight I meet a real hero who is not from a comic book I read or a superhero movie I watched but emerged by fighting day to day to day pickles. I wrote whole incident on my cell phone message box because I don’t meet a superhero in my daily life.

Krb Saurabh