A family that lost its dream house

September 30, 2014 12:22 am | Updated November 16, 2021 05:45 pm IST - SRINAGAR:

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice President Rahul Gandhi interact with flood-affected people in Dehruna Matipora in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. Photo: Nissar Ahmad

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice President Rahul Gandhi interact with flood-affected people in Dehruna Matipora in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. Photo: Nissar Ahmad

Kulsoom and her family members had eagerly been waiting for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi to visit them on Monday.

The senior Congress leaders, who are in Kashmir to meet victims of the recent floods in the State, were to visit the relief camp in Dahrun village in south Kashmir's Doru Tehsil where Kulsoom’s family is staying with 17 other families for the last three weeks.

Memories of her house on the banks of the Bringi stream kept flooding back to Kulsoom. She had always wanted a big house with a lobby. After years of living in cramped spaces, first in her father’s home and then in her in-law’s house, Kulsoom and her husband, Gul Mohammad Raina, finally made their dream house. It had seven rooms on the ground floor and seven on the first floor. It had a lobby too, a big one. Each of her three children had a room to themselves and she and her husband too had a bedroom of their own.

Now, they live in an olive green tent with three pairs of bedding, a few plates for food, some bone china cups, four pots, three spoons, a lantern and the memories of their lost home.

“My house was completely washed away. Not even a sign remained of our home. It’s as if no one ever lived there,” Kulsoom told The Hindu .

“At dawn, when we looked towards our house to see if it had been damaged, we couldn’t find a trace of it,” said Gul Mohammad. Homeless and landless now, they waited for their turn to be visited by the dignitaries, hoping that somehow they would again have a home, even if a small one and without a lobby.

A Congress party worker instructed them to stand up when Ms. Gandhi and Mr. Gandhi visit them and not to come out of their tent when they leave. Kulsoom’s two sons had written applications for jobs as flood victims that they wanted to give to Ms. Gandhi. After a sudden flurry of movement, the two Congress leaders appeared at Kulsoom’s tent, accompanied by senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Saifudin Soz and local legislator Ghulam Ahmad Mir.

The son spoke first and handed over the letters. The mother tried to speak while the Congress leaders handed over a relief box from the Rajiv Gandhi foundation that contained 1 kg rice, 2 litres of oil, 1 kg dal, 2 kg dried milk, half-a-kilo tea, two blankets and a few chlorine tablets to one of the sons. Mir, the local MLA, left immediately even as Kulsoom rambled about being homeless to Ms. Gandhi. After the leaders left for the next tent, there was silence in Kulsoom’s tent. After a while, Kulsoom wiped away her tears and said, “Only God will help us.”

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