- Bhuj earthquake: January 26, 2001. Over 13,000 people dead
- Mumbai terror attack: November 26, 2008. 175 people dead, including nine terrorists
- The Coromandel Express crash at Bahanaga Bazar in Odisha: June 2, 2023. At least 289 dead
There is one common link between these three tragedies that shook the nation. A survivor.
Srikanta Mal, 45, a goldsmith from West Midnapore, was present in Bhuj and Mumbai when tragedy struck there, but he was not directly impacted.
Not so when the Coromandel Express was involved in the triple train collision.
Mal was a passenger in B5, an AC three-tier coach, of the Coromandel Express on June 2. He suffered grievous injuries this time.
Mal told The Telegraph from his hospital bed on Wednesday he does not want to leave his “desh” again for work. By “desh”, he meant his native state, Bengal.
“Aami desh chhere aar jete parbo na. Etobar desh-er baire giye kaaj korechhi. Ebar ja shock peyechhi, aar desh-er baire jete parbo na. Ja kaaj korar ekhanei korte hawbe (I won’t be able to leave my desh again. I have left my desh so many times for work. After the shock I got this time, I won’t be able to leave my desh. Whatever I do has to be here),” he said.
“What I saw this time is so terrifying that I am afraid to go back again,” Mal said from his hospital bed at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
He is from Parbatipur village under Daspur police station in West Midnapore.
During his stay in the hospital, Mal said, he kept hearing a train’s whistle and it brought back “horrific memories”. He still hears the cries of people seeking help and the images of destruction all around appear before his eyes.
“I managed to return to Bhuj a few months after the earthquake. I went back to Mumbai, too, after the terror attack. There was a fear but it could not deter me from going back,” he said.
The B5 coach had been thrown off the tracks and everything started to fall on the passengers. Mal did not let his hands slip off two rods that he held with all his might. “I knew if I left the rods, I would be thrown into some corner and the impact might kill me,” he said, recounting the moments immediately after the crash.
A door then broke and fell on him. He was numbed. Several minutes later some outsiders came in. They removed the door, lifted him and took him out.
Mal was heading to Bangalore, where he worked as a goldsmith, after spending a vacation at home.
He had taken the Coromandel Express to reach Chennai and had a ticket to Bangalore from Chennai Central Station.
Doctors at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital said Mal had injuries in his ribs and liver when he was brought late on June 3. A surgery was done within hours of his admission.
Blood was spilling out of his liver and had filled the abdomen.
“When he came here, he was looking apparently fine but there was blood inside his abdomen,” said Arkaprovo Roy, an associate professor of surgery.
A surgery, which lasted more than two hours, was conducted to remove the blood and repair the injuries in his liver.
Saptarshi Saha Chowdhury, an emergency surgeon, conducted the operation.
“He was critical that night. He was under close observation for two or three days after the surgery,” Roy said.
“We are planning to discharge him on Friday or Saturday,” he said.
In the past 11 days, Mal has recuperated physically but the mental scars will take long to heal.
While in the hospital, Mal’s mind has always remained preoccupied with how his injury has troubled his family.
His son’s studies have been affected.
“He is in his uncle’s home and not being able to study. My wife is here and she has to look after me. So she cannot look after our son now,” he said. The couple’s elder daughter is married.
Mal is now worried about how he will run his family now that he has decided against going back to Bangalore. His son is 12 years old, his wife is a homemaker and his mother is 65.
“My mother earns a pension, but I need to earn, too,” he said.
Mal said given the nature of his injuries, he will not get employment under the 100 days’ work scheme that involves physically taxing jobs. He will have to look for a job that does not require too much physical activity, he said.
Some immediate money like compensation for the injured announced by the state and central governments would help. But neither Mal nor anyone in the family has heard from the state government or the railways about any compensation.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that the state government would give Rs 1 lakh to those who suffered grievous injuries and Rs 25,000 to those with minor injuries.
The Centre has announced a Rs 50,000 compensation for the injured.