Reaching out to the unreachable in Uri

"Has Your home been spared, Sir!"

“Has your home been spared, Sir,” asks eight years old Wasim even before asking my identity. I was on my way up to Tilawadi village on the last-but-one hill along the LoC (Line of Control) near Uri, J & K. My answer in the affirmative helped bring a flash of smile on the face of this toddler victim of the killer earthquake.

Wasim was on his way to the grocery store one-and-half kilometre downhill. His father was still bed-ridden, after being severely injured in the quake. While Wasim’s mother fends his younger siblings and the household, he had to take a trip or two everyday to fetch grocery or medicines from Balkote village.

Wasim looked tired and pensive, quite unlikely for a Kashmiri kid of his age; normally. “Sir, if you can give me five rupees I would have biscuits. I didn’t bring money for that,” inquired Wasim. I obliged happily and he returned it by allowing me to take a few photographs the way I asked for.

I was lagging far behind my team of Kashmiri youth who had volunteered to accompany me for post-quake survey in the inaccessible areas. After a good one hour of trekking we made it to our first destination, Tilawadi village.

The septuagenarian Ghulam Ahmed Mir of Tialwadi greeted us amidst taking stocks of the debris where once stood his three-story house. We said to be from the media and not from NGO, just to make the villagers’ expectation minimum and to not get an exaggerated figure of the damage. His 16-member family now takes shelter under the open sky. He rescued his son Bashir, daughter-in-law as well as two grandchildren, which included a baby girl of 18-day old. All of them are recuperating, while Bashir is still admitted in Baramulla District Hospital with serious injuries. We bid adieu but this gentleman did not forget to offer us tea and food in a true spirit of Kashmiri hospitality. However, we saluted Ghulam for his benevolence and promised him to oblige his invitation later.

We were running out of time to start our relief work as snow fall was about to start with December coming. Our team proceeded further uphill but the running around on the hills with empty stomach was already taking the toll. Then we caught attention of Subedar C P Sharma near Tilawadi Army Post. He enquired about us and invited our team for lunch. That was a welcome break. The jawans were already hosting a few nearby villagers for a meal when we joined them.

From our taxi driver at Srinagar to the villagers near the LoC, everybody is now singing praise for the Indian Army. As for Kashmir, nobody else can reach out to the nook and corner better than the Army. And they seemed to have done a good job, whether rescuing people from debris, taking them to hospitals to feeding them. It was visible the way villagers have started saying ‘Our Army, from ‘The Indian Army’. The earthquake has changed the equation now. The snow-capped peak in front of us is referred to as in ‘the other side’, which was once identified as ‘Azad Kashmir’ by the locals.

By sundown, we rushed back to our base, Baramulla. We went and met the Deputy Commissioner N K Verma at his official residence on the bank of the Jehlum. It was a fortress, unmistakably. “I am also a victim of the earthquake. Look, half of my building is gone,” remarked the DC pointing to the collapsed portions of the bungalow. Kashmir, that too in the time of a disaster, is always different. We wanted to be reassured of everything for reaching out to the most needy people with relief. Verma was patient to our queries and honest in his assessment. It was going to be really useful in our relief work.We turned to the Army for helping us in the relief operation. As we waited for our relief truck, we worked out the details with Col. P K Singh, Commanding Officer of the 56 Rastriya Rifle, who was also heading the Disaster Management Centre of the Indian Army at Uri. “We would reach out to the villages where no civilian relief team has gone before,” we made our intention clear. Immediately, we got an encouraging response from the Army.

Many of the inaccessible villages we short-listed fell under different regiments of the Army. We knew the 14 Rajput and the Artillery would be working with us for the days to come. I made a call and dropped in to the residence of Lt Col. Aditya Budhiraja of the 14 Rajput Regiment. He was appreciative of our intention but seemed apprehensive about our ability as relief work in the cut-off areas could test even the best of men. Our persistence made him confident and there we made a plan for the next three days. The officer, having lost half of his official residence in the earthquake, offered his living room to store the relief materials.

We started with the hill-top village of Dhulanja which is the last village before the LoC and is cut off by the gurgling Jehlum. The village of 65 families had lost 18 people including all the houses in the earthquake. The only way of transportation with the outer world for this village is a manual ropeway over the Jehlum. It took a good three hours to take our materials to the other side. But, it was worth it. The village was receiving its first civilian relief. The Artillery men who were once busy training their cannons on the opposition posts are now working hard to make life normal for the villagers. We were not surprised when Major Himmat Verma thanked us profusely on behalf of ‘his villagers’ for taking so much effort in reaching out to them.

I thanked them for their benevolence and rushed to climb down the hills and to cross the Jhelum, which was going to be an hour-long task. We also needed to take the NH-1A, before it was closed for traffic, for Baramulla, our base, to plan for the next day; our next challenge!

-Sandip Nayak


For ENQUIRY AND DONATION YOU MAY CONTACT:

Sandip Nayak
Senior Manager
Alliances & Partnerships
s.nayak@smilefoundationindia.org