Nisha Chettri

Kalimpong,7th July 

The incessant rain of 1^st July’s morning demolished many families and properties. Ministers and politicians rushed to the landslide affected areas and the departments worked on emergency alert. Amidst everything, Bivek Rai (12) a little survivor who is still undergoing a treatment in Sub-Divisional hospital has a higher hope towards life.

It was around 1 am (as Bivek mentions), when the wall of 7^th mile bypass skated down, washing away Ramesh Rai’s house on the early hours of 1^st July. Little does Bivek remember about the fateful night, fiddling restlessly in the hospital bed he narrated his story to this correspondent this afternoon.

(His left arm is injured and has sustained a minor head injury. He is having problems with his left ear and his face has a scar of healing wound.)

‘We were sleeping when the wall suddenly washed our home, my body was buried in the marshy debris and my left arm was beneath a rock, I could not move my body, neither my arm’ said Bivek who frowned when he started speaking.

He said that it was dark and the electricity was disconnected. He tried escaping from the marshy rubble, and with a stroke of a bright lightening, he saw his younger brother’s (Amrit’s) leg protruding from rubble.

‘I saw my brother’s leg, I’m sure his body was buried, I tried freeing myself from the debris so that I could help him out and after 10-20 minutes struggle, I came out from the marshy mud and tried pulling my brother’s leg’ said the little survivor, adding that he could not pull his younger brother out as the fresh rocks rolled down towards them and he started trudging aimlessly, stepping his wrecked home to ask for help.

He said that he didn’t know where he was going for it was dark and after reaching the road (7^th mile bypass) he sensed that his uncle’s home is towards the left. ‘I then went and woke my Kaka-Kaki’ Rai added.

It was known that Bivek’s father Ramesh Rai was a farmer who looked after the family by the income he earned from trade of floriculture and ginger.

Ramesh Rai’s body was traced beneath a tree on Sunday but his wife Kusum’s body is still missing.

Meanwhile the SDMO Dr. Somam spoke to this correspondent regarding Bivek’s health. He said that Bivek is recovering, ‘He is getting better but I am not sure if he is told about his parents’ said Dr.Sonam. However, besides a 14 year old boy who is Bivek’s brother, no one was present in the hospital to conform about his (Bivek’s) knowledge of his dead parents.

After a warming conversation for some time, Bivek got little comfortable to talk to this Journalist, he then said that he has dreamt of building a new house and has a dream to become an Army, ‘I will join defense force after I grow, I want to protect this nation and I want to go to new places’ said Rai who believes that joining army will be a bonus as Army’s get to see new places once in a while.

He also said that he loved his mother more than his father as his father was strict, when asked about his brother he said that he loved his brother too, ‘I loved Amrit, though we used to fight sometimes’ he saidwith little smile on his face.

He also shared his ‘happiest-moments’ with his parents that’s when they used to go for a family picnic in the riversides, ‘My father used to reserve a car and we used to go for a picnic in our vacations, I know things will still be the same’ says the confused survivor, he further said that he has his Kaka-kaki, Phupu and his cousins will always be with him.

Bivek later said that he doesn’t want to talk about his parents and want to go home, he sat silent for some time and spoke again, ‘We had so many chickens and hens, we had 30 in total, bigger hens gave birth to many chickens’ he said and smiled remembering the weekends he spent in his home.

Before the visiting time was over in the hospital, Biswas Subba-the 14 year old boy, who is now taking care of Bivek said that he will always take care of his brother, ‘I will look after Bivek, I’ve been staying with him since last 5 days, I will support bhai, I will earn money and look after him’ said Biswas Subba with a positive smile on his face.