Hyderabad, October 17: Migrating from Mahaboobnagar district almost six years, Khaja Bee considered herself lucky being able to rent in for Rs 500 a month a house on the banks of the Tungabhadra with a mosque alongside and a temple right across the river.
Her three children started going to school and all was tidy and well-ordered at home, books neatly stacked and rice and provisions properly stored.
Until the floods came, sweeping away her dreams in no time at all and submerging the village under nearly 30 feet of water.
For the last four days, Khaja Bee has been moving around through knee-deep slush and filth in the hope of salvaging whatever she can from the house. Luck has not yet smiled on her.
“I had stored four bags of rice in the house. It will be a struggle feeding my children who are now sheltering in a church in Kurnool town,” she says.
Meanwhile, on her own she is trying to clean the house as best she can. It is a truly daunting task with the rooms filled with muck and a horrible stench emanating.
Most of the belongings are gone — whatever little furniture there was, clothes and other things. Still she keeps moving around in the slush trying to retrieve whatever might come into her probing hands.
“The night the water began entering my house, I just packed some clothes of the children and we fled the village. Their school books, bags, literally everything is lost,” she says sorrowfully, wondering whether they have a realistic chance of returning to school. For now, Khaja Bee, who was given Rs 3000 as relief by the State Government, is grateful to the church in Kurnool for providing shelter to the family for so many days.
–Agencies–