MEPPADI (WAYANAD): Fate can’t be much crueller than this. Eleven members of Kalathingal Nousheeba’s family have been swept away by the Mundakkai landslide – her father, mother, elder brother, two sisters-in-law and six nieces and nephews – all of whom were staying at her ancestral house at Mundakkai that fateful night. As if this immense loss was not enough, Nousheeba has also lost five members of her husband’s family – her mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and their two children.
Grief-stricken Nousheeba (40) has been standing before the Meppadi family health centre for the last three days with swollen eyes.She walks up to the makeshift pandal each time a new body dug out of the landslide ravaged villages of Chooralmala and Meppadi is brought in for identification.
On Saturday, a new body wrapped in white cloth with “Number 168-Female child” written on it in blue ink was brought. The volunteer asked out loud if there was anyone to identify the body. Nousheeba walked up to check, thinking it could be her niece, but found it wasn’t her. She’s been repeating this traumatic routine for the last three days.
‘Now, a mammoth rock sits where our house stood’
When Nousheeba walked up to the body along with her daughters Nahla and Thafseena, the volunteer showed them the leg of the body, saying the face cannot be shown as it is badly disfigured. The mehendi on the fingers brought a flicker of recognition and Nousheeba contemplated the possibility of the body being of her niece, Shahla. But Thafseena spotted an anklet on the leg and said it wasn’t her cousin as she didn’t wear anklets. So the family walked back.
“I have lost all my family. I have to stand here waiting (to see) if at all they are brought in. All of them were staying in my father’s house just in front of the Mundakkai mosque. My elder brother and his five-member family, who were staying in the estate quarters, had come to be with my father in view of the heavy rains. There were 11 family members in the house, and all went missing after the landslide swept away the entire house without a trace,” said Nousheeba.
She said the bodies of her father Kunhammed, mother Ayisha, and her two nieces — Ayisha Amana and Nafla — have been found, but all the others, including brother Mansoor, his wife Muhsina, their two children Shahla and Shafna, and her sister-in-law Sajna (younger brother Noufal’s wife) and the couple’s two children, Nihal and Isha Mehrin, are missing.
“I was staying in my house, which is close by, as my husband had come on leave a month ago. Otherwise I, too, would have been swept away with all of them. On hearing the loud thunderous sound, we ran up the woods and stayed there the entire night. It was when dawn broke that I saw that my ancestral house and all my dear ones who stayed there were gone,” said Nousheeba.
“At the place where our house stood now sits a mammoth rock,” she said, adding that her niece Shahla’s wedding had been fixed for Sept 22.
Nousheeba has also lost her mother-in-law Pathuma, sisters-in-law Sumayya and Nazeera, and Nazeera’s children Munaveer and Rinsha Fathima. The bodies of Sumayya, Nazeera and Munaveer have been recovered.
Grief-stricken Nousheeba (40) has been standing before the Meppadi family health centre for the last three days with swollen eyes.She walks up to the makeshift pandal each time a new body dug out of the landslide ravaged villages of Chooralmala and Meppadi is brought in for identification.
On Saturday, a new body wrapped in white cloth with “Number 168-Female child” written on it in blue ink was brought. The volunteer asked out loud if there was anyone to identify the body. Nousheeba walked up to check, thinking it could be her niece, but found it wasn’t her. She’s been repeating this traumatic routine for the last three days.
‘Now, a mammoth rock sits where our house stood’
When Nousheeba walked up to the body along with her daughters Nahla and Thafseena, the volunteer showed them the leg of the body, saying the face cannot be shown as it is badly disfigured. The mehendi on the fingers brought a flicker of recognition and Nousheeba contemplated the possibility of the body being of her niece, Shahla. But Thafseena spotted an anklet on the leg and said it wasn’t her cousin as she didn’t wear anklets. So the family walked back.
“I have lost all my family. I have to stand here waiting (to see) if at all they are brought in. All of them were staying in my father’s house just in front of the Mundakkai mosque. My elder brother and his five-member family, who were staying in the estate quarters, had come to be with my father in view of the heavy rains. There were 11 family members in the house, and all went missing after the landslide swept away the entire house without a trace,” said Nousheeba.
She said the bodies of her father Kunhammed, mother Ayisha, and her two nieces — Ayisha Amana and Nafla — have been found, but all the others, including brother Mansoor, his wife Muhsina, their two children Shahla and Shafna, and her sister-in-law Sajna (younger brother Noufal’s wife) and the couple’s two children, Nihal and Isha Mehrin, are missing.
“I was staying in my house, which is close by, as my husband had come on leave a month ago. Otherwise I, too, would have been swept away with all of them. On hearing the loud thunderous sound, we ran up the woods and stayed there the entire night. It was when dawn broke that I saw that my ancestral house and all my dear ones who stayed there were gone,” said Nousheeba.
“At the place where our house stood now sits a mammoth rock,” she said, adding that her niece Shahla’s wedding had been fixed for Sept 22.
Nousheeba has also lost her mother-in-law Pathuma, sisters-in-law Sumayya and Nazeera, and Nazeera’s children Munaveer and Rinsha Fathima. The bodies of Sumayya, Nazeera and Munaveer have been recovered.
