I was born after an infamous incident changed a big city in India. The city survived, but it will never be the same again. That incident was the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, and I realised in 2013 that it redefined the meaning of the word ‘tragedy’ for me.
When I visited old Bhopal in December that year, the glitches that I face in a city like Mumbai, such as stepping out of the house without an umbrella on a rainy day, seemed to be a part of another world. The gas tragedy, which killed thousands and has transformed the lives of millions, continues till today and I witnessed it.
Around 10,000 people are estimated to have died after methyl isocyanate and other poisonous gases made their way into people’s bodies because of a gas leak. Inside the Union Carbide factory, I could not imagine the scene that would have unfolded outside: people running on the streets, bodies lying in heaps. When I saw the rusted iron rods and tankers, I did not realise that these images would stay with me. They continue to haunt me today.
I stayed in old Bhopal for three weeks and was part of a group of survivors and sympathisers who come together every December 2 and 3 with placards and shout slogans demanding justice for the victims. Journalists, photographers, students, doctors, nurses and people from various professions, nationalities and age groups gather there unfailingly year after year, continuing to fight for justice for those who are forced to live in the past.
I was among the many who had gone to document the plight of the people there three decades after the tragedy. I spoke to the survivors, went to the homes of those who still live in areas where the soil contains lethal gases and who drink water that has long been declared “unfit for consumption”.
I remember Kausar Bi, a 76-year-old widow, sitting outside her house on a charpai and telling me: “Nobody wants to marry our sons, nobody wants to marry our daughters. Nobody even wants to come to our house because the air here is still deadly.”
Shehnaz, in her 20s, told me, her eyes filled with despair: “I have lost three of my kids in my womb and now I can no longer conceive.”
Tragedies change people’s lives. But in this case, a tragedy has changed the lives of many generations. I realised that day that we have failed the people of old Bhopal, and no compensation can be enough for their suffering all these years.
