Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, May 2: The mother had breast-fed her one-month-old baby and put him in a make-shift cradle made of sari that was hung with the help of an iron hook. It was around midnight on June 16, 2016, when rainy season had picked momentum. The family was trying to escape from vagaries of climate in its tiny hut with a tin sheet serving as its roof. Even as the child slipped into deep sleep, storm began to blow menacingly, and the roof of the family's tiny hut, unable to withstand the power of the storm, flew away and the baby also went missing along with the roof.
This incident happened at Bommarabettu near Hiriadka in Kaup taluk two years back. It occurred among a cluster of huts in which several families from Hungund taluk of Bagalkot district, who eked out a living by working as coolies, had settled down. The family of Sharada and Mahantesh which was one among such families living in the area, which was blessed with a male child just a month back, when it was struck by cruel fate.
Arjun was born to the couple on May 16, and the child disappeared into thin air after the storm which blew that day carried away the family's roof. Roofs, tiles and many other things of several houses in the area had also been swept away by the storm. After concerted search carried out with the help of neighbours, the child was traced on the ground about a hundred metres away from the hut. The child had suffered nasty injury on his head and the initial feeling of the family was that it was no more. The family found that the child had survived the scare and the parents took him to Manipal hospital where authorities said lacs of rupees would be needed to treat the child.
As putting together such a huge amount was unimaginable, the family rushed to Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru. A generous and well-meaning local representative in the form of Kaup MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake, who came to know about the incident on June 17 morning visited the area, understood the plight, went to Mangaluru and talked to doctors, duly promising to foot the entire expenses for treating the child. He kept his word.
The incident happened on a Sunday, and government offices were not functioning. But the Sorake, unmindful of the difficulties he himself encountered, summoned officials and arranged for reconstruction of shattered houses in the area immediately. In the meanwhile, Arjun, who luckily survived with help from this noble soul, will turn two on May 16 this year.
People from Bommarabettu swear that they will not forget the people's representative who came as their saviour at a critical time till death. Arjun's wife, Sharada, says that it would be a sin to even imagine forgetting of a person who appeared in their lives like God and helped them to build their lives again.
Sharada says that the family's life was shattered because of the storm, as it faced the challenge of saving the life of the small child, and think of family's survival at a time when food and other times stored inside the hut had been blown away. She keeps praying to the Lord to grant happiness, good health, and long life to the people's representative who saved the family on that fateful occasion.
Her neighbour from the area, Neela, says that when the families came and settled down here 20 years back, there was no basic facility here. She says gratefully that the families now have ration cards, voter identity cards, Aadhaar cards etc and that the families are happily living here by working as coolies and thank the people's representative who made these things possible from the depths of their hearts.