For most, who lost their near and dear ones in Monday’s train accident, it was loss of life. But for some, it was loss of hope. Nakur Shah and his wife Bhutto devi had all their hopes pinned onto their only son Manoj. At 18, he was the first in the Shah family to have passed the higher secondary examination and was aiming to scale higher
heights. “He was the first in generations of our family who was getting literate. He wanted to be a senior government officer,” said Nakur Shah controlling his tears infront of the morgue at the Suri sadar hospital.
While by his side there was hardly a thing that could have consoled the bereaved mother who kept on wailing over her son’s body, lying lifeless on the floor of the morgue. “Why has God kept us alive…to see this day?” was all she could utter between her uncontrollable sobs. Manoj and his parents were returning from Ranchi after filling up a form of a government examination that would have helped him materialise his dreams. Dreams that shattered with his death.
Meanwhile, for 18-year-old Amar Shah, it was like his entire world had been ripped apart. One train accident snatched his entire family from him in one single blow. “My father, mother, aunty, my elder sister and I were on our way home to Asansol from Bhagalpur. We all were so happy after fixing up didi’s marriage at Bhagalpur. But one single accident changed it all,” said a dazed Amar.
He was the only one left alive in his family. The only claimant of the four bodies that of his father Balaram Shah, his mother Sangita devi, aunt Renu and sister Shakuntala.