September 6 will forever be etched in memories of Sukumaran and his wife Kanakam, an elderly couple from Palarivattom in Ernakulam, in more ways than one.
It was the first day of their five-day-long visit to Jammu & Kashmir. “It was an absolute shock, the devastating floods spoiled our hard work for years and the dream of a lifetime,” said Sukumaran, who runs a small-scale stationary shop in the city. To accomplish the dream, the couple had been saving for almost five years to fund their trip that cost them Rs. 35,000 per head.
The couple, stranded in Kashmir following floods, returned safely in Kochi on Wednesday, recalling the terrible flood that turned their visit to the place into a nightmare. The rain was continuously pouring till the other day and hence all the members of the group were unable to move out of the hotel.
According to him, the gruesome experience they faced may never prompt him and his family to visit these places again. “We feel incredibly lucky to have survived but it’s a mixture of relief and guilt knowing that several others did not make it,” he said. He also lauded the government for their concern towards the people hit by the calamity and said he never expected the government to react so swiftly with vehicles and food and accommodation being taken care of to the best of their capabilities. Shashi, a medical doctor from Mannarkad in Palakkad district and his wife Manju, who was also part of the same 19-member group that landed by a Go Air flight by 7.10 p.m., also had similar stories to narrate. “Having seen people fighting to survive during the past few days, I have realised that there is no greater place than one’s own home,” he said. A fellow traveller, Ismail of Kottakkal, said there was sheer relief as they had survived. The survivors also saw more than two dozen buildings collapsing around them.
In addition to the 19-member group, about seven other persons who had been evacuated from Srinagar also landed in Kochi during the day.
