Tribute to my Superman
October 29, 1999. A Friday. State of Orissa (Odisha), India.
A super cyclone hits the state with a wind speed of 300 km. per hour.
Incessant rains for the next 48 hours. 500 to 950 mm. rainfall in 48 hours.
20 feet high water wall sweeps away
everything in its path.
14 coastal districts devastated.
20, 000 human casualties.
15 million people affected. All cattle gone.
Estimated damage 40000 million Indian rupees.
The severity of the effect of the cyclone still haunts people who were witnesses to it and
lost their near and dear ones.
One of my friends - let me call him Sukanta - disappeared from our common place of work two days before the cyclone hit. He was a short, stocky, introvert and soft speaking fellow. On the second day of his missing, I got worried. Although our place of work was far away from the coasts, the forecast was high winds and heavy rainfall in our place too. Sukanta reappeared almost 7 days after the cyclone passed.
I tried to find out about his whereabouts in those 7 days. He was silent. Try as I did, I could not break his silence. With time, I forgot about the whole episode.
A year had gone by. Time had come for Durga puja, a major yearly religious ceremony in India. One day before the start of five-day Durga Puja ceremony, I was woken up early morning by a phone call from another friend of mine. He informed me that about 150 men and women had gathered in front of Sukanta's house. Both of us rushed to Sukanta's house. On reaching we found that Sukanta was sitting on ground, looking completely bewildered, and the people surrounding him were worshipping him as they would worship their God. Sukanta looked like searching for the first opportunity to flee.
I heard bits and pieces from those people and could form a picture of what had happened in those 7 days Sukanta went missing.
After getting confirmed about the landfall location of the super cyclone, which was near Esmara bloc, Sukanta packed his backpack with biscuits, dry food, iodine tablets and some first aid material, and headed for the landfall location. He was right there on a highway near Esmara, took shelter in a bus stoppage structure and waited. After the cyclonic wind subsided to high wind level, he headed for interior carrying his meagre relief material in his backpack, a shovel and a roll of rope There was water everywhere. Not a single village was left undevastated, no house wss left standing, hardly any sign of life. A few trees were standing. There was life in those trees. Some men and women had climbed on those trees hanging on for life. Sukanta joined together some wooden planks and pieces of tree branches to form a raft and using his shovel as a pedal, he moved from tree to tree. He was one-man rescue army. He remained one-man rescue army for next three days and nights before the rescue and relief agencies of Government, Red Cross and NGOs arrived. No sleep. His meagre food supplies exhausted. No drinking water. His makeshift raft needed frequent repair. It was a superhuman effort. He rescued at least 27 families.
The villagers paid their respect to Sukanta the way they did - worshipping him ahead of Durga Puja.
After a few days of this incident, I met Sukanta in a tea stall. I tried to find out more about his experiences in those fateful five days. What he replied was what I should have expected. He said " Bose, (my family name) those villagers were mistaken. I was not the person. I never went there."
Sukanta did not want any mileage. He did not want it to be known.
Here was an enlightened soul living right within the society.
Sukanta left his physical body two days back on 19th of this month.
God bless him and all of us. I was fortunate to have known him.
Namaste.
Prabir
Incessant rains for the next 48 hours. 500 to 950 mm. rainfall in 48 hours.
20 feet high water wall sweeps away
14 coastal districts devastated.
20, 000 human casualties.
15 million people affected. All cattle gone.
Estimated damage 40000 million Indian rupees.
The severity of the effect of the cyclone still haunts people who were witnesses to it and
One of my friends - let me call him Sukanta - disappeared from our common place of work two days before the cyclone hit. He was a short, stocky, introvert and soft speaking fellow. On the second day of his missing, I got worried. Although our place of work was far away from the coasts, the forecast was high winds and heavy rainfall in our place too. Sukanta reappeared almost 7 days after the cyclone passed.
I heard bits and pieces from those people and could form a picture of what had happened in those 7 days Sukanta went missing.
After getting confirmed about the landfall location of the super cyclone, which was near Esmara bloc, Sukanta packed his backpack with biscuits, dry food, iodine tablets and some first aid material, and headed for the landfall location. He was right there on a highway near Esmara, took shelter in a bus stoppage structure and waited. After the cyclonic wind subsided to high wind level, he headed for interior carrying his meagre relief material in his backpack, a shovel and a roll of rope There was water everywhere. Not a single village was left undevastated, no house wss left standing, hardly any sign of life. A few trees were standing. There was life in those trees. Some men and women had climbed on those trees hanging on for life. Sukanta joined together some wooden planks and pieces of tree branches to form a raft and using his shovel as a pedal, he moved from tree to tree. He was one-man rescue army. He remained one-man rescue army for next three days and nights before the rescue and relief agencies of Government, Red Cross and NGOs arrived. No sleep. His meagre food supplies exhausted. No drinking water. His makeshift raft needed frequent repair. It was a superhuman effort. He rescued at least 27 families.
The villagers paid their respect to Sukanta the way they did - worshipping him ahead of Durga Puja.
After a few days of this incident, I met Sukanta in a tea stall. I tried to find out more about his experiences in those fateful five days. What he replied was what I should have expected. He said " Bose, (my family name) those villagers were mistaken. I was not the person. I never went there."
Sukanta did not want any mileage. He did not want it to be known.
Here was an enlightened soul living right within the society.
Sukanta left his physical body two days back on 19th of this month.
God bless him and all of us. I was fortunate to have known him.
Namaste.
Prabir
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