What washed away with the houses in Anna Nagar were childhood photos of Rekha Rani’s kids, a newly wedded Rani’s clothes, and only photograph of Santosh’s late husband.
Rekha Rani’s house is among over 12 others which was washed away in the heavy rain on Sunday morning. There’s absolutely nothing left of it, she said, crying incessantly, while realising how her life changed in a moment.
“ Hum kabhi ghar nahi bana payenge dobara . [We won’t be able to build another house]. We live in a country run by Narendra Modi, in a city run by Arvind Kejriwal. We voted for them and urged people to vote for them as well. Can’t they see how we are living?” she said.
Building plans
A speaker, Rani bought 20 years ago for her love for music is probably one of the only belongings left put on the wall of their now destroyed house. “We had plans of building one floor above our jhuggi for which my husband arranged ₹1 lakh. We had to buy the raw material on Monday,” she cried.
Rani sat on a mat placed on a wet green-coloured carpet in an open tent and shared how she and others living in tents spent the night when it rained on Monday night. “For a while, we sat under the tent but it started splashing across us. We ran to take shelter under the Indraprastha metro station. Some of us also went to a temple nearby,” she said, adding that she hasn’t changed her clothes since Sunday. “We can fall sick, especially the children. COVID-19 is also a concern and we are living in such terrible conditions”.
The public toilets installed nearby, she said, are too dirty to use and haven’t been cleaned since they have moved here.
Sitting next to Rani was 19-year-old Rakhi. She had just got married on June 29 and had brought bed, jewellery, new clothes with her. “Everything got washed away. Even the clothes I am wearing have been borrowed from my sister-in-law,” she said. Her mother-in-law Santosh cried, “My husband Padam Kumar’s only photo also got swept away”. He passed away in 2006.
Developed cracks
Among those putting up tents is also a two-month-old Tanuja whose house is on the banks and has developed cracks. “Nobody is concerned about us, everyone only cares about those whose houses got washed away. We are equally troubled if not more,” quipped Tanuja’s grandmother Kanchi.
Across the road, there are several residents whose houses — on the bank of the drain, running between the under-construction WHO headquarters — have developed cracks. The JJ colony is mostly inhabited by sanitation workers who blame the underground construction as the cause for their loss.
Boon and bane
For 60-year-old Sunehri’s family of 12, a peepal tree turned out to be a boon, but they fear it might prove to be a bane for them in future. “Because of the wide roots of this tree which our house held on to, we were saved and so was the house. But in the future, if the rain is heavier, at least 30-35 houses will be destroyed if the tree fell on them,” said Sunehri’s son Jatin, 25, who claimed to have lost his sanitation job because of the lockdown.
Living ahead of Sunehri’s house is Chandrawati’s (60) house where she lives alone. “I am in these clothes for the last three days and I don’t have the courage to open my house because it’s on the edge,” she said.
Rekha Rani, Santosh, Harish, his wife Shashi, Neelam, her husband Vinod Kumar and many others are now scared for their lives and don’t know what the future holds for them. “ Hum kab tak road par rahenge, kaha jaenge, kuch nahi pata [Till when we will stay on the road, where will we go, we don’t know],” said Rani as it started pouring heavily again on Tuesday and everyone ran for shelter under the metro station.
