Flood Diary IV: Air dropping went in vain; the entire night we collected rain water, writes Moumita Gupta

Aug. 6: On Wednesday (22 June, 2022), morning, I woke up around 8 and instantly went downstairs with some hope of seeing the water level receding. However, my hopes were shattered as the water level appeared to be steady. Suddenly, I heard the sound of helicopter over our building. The entire building was rocking as it happens during a major earthquake. Everybody were rushing upstairs to the terrace. By the time we could reach, the helicopter started to drop packets at the terrace.

The big bird came so down that it almost was touching our terrace. The flower tubs over were all at sixes and sevens. 24 sacks were dropped on our terrace from the helicopter of Indian Air Force. We were fortunate enough that air dropping of relief materials in Silchar during the flood started from our building. The moment the helicopter went away, all of us rushed to pick up the sacks. But our happiness turned into sorrow when we started to open the sacks.

Each sack contained two water bottles (1 litre each), a liquid ORS packet, 1 packet biscuit, around 300 gm jaggery (gur), a 2 kg plastic packet of flattened corn (chira) and a tissue paper.. In total, there were 48 bottles of water in these sacks (1 litre bottles). Out of these, only 5 bottles were intact, whereas, the rest 43 bottles had broken after being dropped from the helicopter. The bottles broke and the water mixed with the jaggery (Gur). The liquid ORS packets also broke. The packet of biscuit was crushed. As a result all these mixed together. Even the tissue paper was mixed with the jaggery and water. Only the packets of flattened rice (chira) were intact. But the quality of flattened rice was so worst that bad odour was coming from them.

All the 24 sacks containing edibles were wasted except only 5 water bottles. Our terrace became a symbol of devastation. Broken flower pots were lying on the terrace. The damaged food items were also lying all over. It took nearly 2 hours to clean the terrace by us. The entire day, the helicopter could be seen in the sky dropping food packets on the buildings. The futile exercise of air dropping went on till late afternoon.

Meanwhile, our stock of water to be used in the bathroom was gradually receding. Only 2 buckets of water were remaining. With the flood water level being steady, we were really at a loss to understand how to pass the rest of the days with only 2 buckets of water. Drinking water again came down to almost 4 litres on Wednesday morning. We decided not to take the risk of cooking due to scarcity of water. That day, all three of us ate puffed rice (muri) mixed with chanachur & bhujiya. I really felt very sorry for my child Taan. But there was no way out.

Suddenly, a gentleman residing in the flat adjacent to me approached me. He has recently been transferred to Silchar from Rajasthan and works at the Punjab National Bank. He has a small kid of 1 year. He said to me, “Didi, can you please help me? My kid’s milk is finished. The kid drinks Amul Taaza mixed with hot water. Even we don’t have a drop of water. I went down and brought the flood water, which my wife boiled and mixed with the last packet of Amul Taaza and fed my baby.” It was indeed a very heart- rendering incident. Immediately I opened my refrigerator and found three small packets of Amul Taaza. At once, I gave the packets to the gentleman and out of our stock of 4 litres of drinking water, I gave him 2 litres for his kid. Life has indeed started to become more worst.

Just then my son Taan came running upstairs and said, “Ma, some persons have come in a boat near our building with lots of water bottles.: Immediately, we rushed downstairs and went outside our gate. Near our gate, the water was almost upto our waist level. What I saw were around 6 to 7 youths have come with water bottles for distribution. They were finding it very difficult to control their boat in the water. From their boat, they threw water bottles towards us. Almost all of the families residing in our flat were eagerly standing in waist level water to take catch the water bottles. My husband could manage to collect 3 bottles (1 lt each), while I got a 2 litre water bottle. Many bottles also slipped from the hands and instantly vanished in the rushing flood water.

But who were these youths? None of them were known to anybody of us. On asking them, we came to know that they have come all the way from Lakhipur. They have somehow heard that the residents at Public School Road, Silchar were facing severe scarcity of drinking water; and so they risking their lives came here on a country boat and distributed water. Indeed, humanity has not died. These boys appeared to us like God-sent Angels. When the administration left us to the mercy of none, when no government help was coming in our area citing too much current in the water, these youths without any life jackets came in a country made boat, I really became baffled remembering the definition of ‘welfare state’ during my schooldays. This was just the beginning of the help we started to receive from individuals, NGO’s and other clubs and organisations.

Boat plying at Public School Road, Silchar

Also Read: Flood Diary I: Water rushing in at a great pace while making sound like sea waves, writes Moumita Gupta

With 5 litres of water, we entered our flat feeling extremely happy. Today also, we could not take bath. My husband then announced that we are left out with only one and a half bucket of water for using in the bathroom. It was too hot during the day and Taan started to cry. He wanted to take a bath. I then took a mug of water and somehow with that, I wiped his body with a wet towel and put little water on his head.

At dusk, once again we all to our terrace and sat there till 10.30 PM. All of us were feeling hungry. But I was not in a position to cook due to paucity of water. We again ate Muri with chanachur. From around midnight, again started loud shrieks of “Chor Chor” made by our neighbours. That night, I felt so mentally and physically exhausted, then I felt asleep.

Also Read: Flood Diary II: All hopes of getting rescued evaporated; we were left out with only 4 lts of water, writes Moumita Gupta

Suddenly, my husband woke me up. He said to me that it had started to rain and he will go to the terrace and collect rainwater. It was totally dark. He went with two buckets. I was feeling worried as he was not coming even after an hour. I too could not go out and help him as Taan would be then alone in the room. It was then that he came in with two full buckets of water. Moreover, he was wet in the rain. “I am feeling so relieved to be able to take bath after two days in the rain water,” exclaimed my husband with joy.

He once again went up with two more buckets. It took more than an hour to fill them. I too woke up and took a mini shower with the water he brought. I started to cut some vegetables for cooking the next day. He took these vegetables and a bowl of rice and washed them all in the rain water at the terrace. By 4 in the early morning, we could fill 5 buckets of rain water. He also filled up some of the big bowls we had in the kitchen. My husband spent almost the entire night on the terrace collecting rain water. By 5 AM, we had a priceless possession of water with which we could pass another day or two.

To be continued……

Also Read: Flood Diary III: From bad to worst, we were proceeding towards uncertainty, writes Moumita Gupta