‘She risked her life to come out and alert us’
KILLED 56yrold Sonmati Sinha died after a branch fell on her as she went out to ask two men to come indoors
NEWDELHI: It was 4.45pm and Sunday night’s storm was only kicking off when 56-year-old Sonmati Sinha realised that she had to warn two gardeners working outside. She abandoned the safety of her home and went to her nursery to call the two men indoors.
After warning the gardeners, she was about to return inside when a heavy branch from a eucalyptus tree fell on her. Her head crushed, she immediately collapsed and possibly died on the spot. Sinha was among the two Delhiites killed in the devastating storm on Sunday that left at least 31 others injured.
“She risked her life to alert us about the storm. Promising to follow her immediately, I urged her to run back to her home. She was just turning around when a large, thick branch of the eucalyptus tree fell on her,” said Kali Charan, one of the gardeners. He was injured on Sunday by another smaller broken branch.
Widowed nearly 25 years ago, Sinha had got her husband’s job of an attendant at the All India Panchayat Parishad office in east Delhi’s Pandav Nagar. She lived with her son in a staff quarter provided by the institution in its compound.
To supplement her income, she had been running a nursery in the same compound and had employed two gardeners. When the storm began on Sunday evening, she wanted to call the gardeners inside to the safety of her home.
Sunil Kumar, the other gardener, said Sinha almost managed to dodge the broken branch but it hit another tree and changed course at the last second. “She knew where it was falling, so she moved out of its way. But the branch hit a jamun tree on the way down and came down on her head,” said Kumar, adding that he was unable do anything but watch from a distance.
As Sinha lay bundled up under the branch, the two gardeners said they tried to resurrect her by pumping her chest. “We think she had already died before we could get her to the hospital,” said Kumar.
Her 35-year-old son Ashwani, who works at a pathological laboratory, was at a water park with his colleagues when the accident occurred. His mobile phone submitted at the lockers, it took him a while to learn of the tragedy.
“It was a rare occasion when I left my mother at home on a weekend. It pains me to think I was having fun while my mother was dying,” he said.