‘I am boarding a train again. What if this one derails too?’

THE OVER 1,200-km journey from Indore to his village Bilaujha in Mau district of eastern Uttar Pradesh was a special one for 17year-old Vishal Gupta. His sister Ruby, 23, was getting married on December 1. The shopping for her trousseau was done, and father Ram Prasad Gupta, 45, a sales assistant at a wine shop in Indore, had borrowed Rs 3 lakh from friends and relatives to provide for the other expenses. Vishal, a Class 10 student, his father, sisters Ruby and 14year-old Khushi, boarded the Indore-patna Express from Indore in the afternoon on November 19.

A little after 3 am, when most passengers were fast asleep, fourteen coaches of the train derailed at Pukhrayan in Kanpur Dehat district, leaving over 150 dead.

Vishal and his family were in the S-1 coach that was one of the worst hit in the accident. “A few hours after the accident, Ruby, Khushi and I managed to pull ourselves out of the debris, but we couldn’t find our father. We lost all our belongings, including the money that my father had borrowed,” recalls Vishal.

The three were shifted to the Community Health Centre in Pukhrayan, where Ruby was treated for her injuries. For the entire afternoon, the siblings enquired about their father, but there was no word. Finally, late in the evening, Ram Prasad's body was found among the dead in the mortuary at Akbarpur town of Kanpur Dehat district.

“We have been in a state of shock since then. My mother has hardly spoken,” says Vishal,speakingonthephonefromhisvillage.

Since the accident, a lot has changed in the Gupta household. With their primary breadwinner gone, the family — including Vishal’s mother Gyanti, a patient of hypertension, brothers Krishna, 25, and Abhishek, 13, and sister Archana, 18 – is struggling to make ends meet. Ruby’s wedding has been postponed to January 20, and Krishna has left for Indore to take up his father’s job at the wine shop. The rest continue to stay in Bilaujha.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t miss my father.hewantedmetojoinacomputerclass and take up information technology. Despite the cash crunch in the family, he always told me to focus on my education. What will happen to my future now?” says Vishal.

A student of Little Angels’ Convent in Indore, he will return to school in February, after his sister’s wedding. The thought of that journey is “scary”, he says.

“I have not boarded a train since the accident. What if that train derails too? Why can’t drivers be more careful?” asks Vishal.

“It’s ironic that the government talks of bullet trains when they should be worrying about the safety of passengers. Isn’t it more important that passengers reach their destination safe, even if late?” he says.

As they quietly prepare for Ruby’s wedding, the family is worried about their mounting debts. “We owe about Rs 5 lakh to friends and relatives. They aren’t asking for it now, but after the wedding, they will. None of us has a permanent job. The government should provide jobs to accident victims like us,” says Krishna.

The family claims they haven’t received any compensation from the government. “After my sister’s wedding, we will be on our own. My father was everything for us. I don’t know how we will carry on,” says Vishal.

RAMENDRA SINGH