MEPPADI ( WAYANAD ): Punchirimattom native Abhijith Kallingal , 18, was so deeply in love with his native place that he never missed an opportunity to capture the images of his picturesque village using his mobile phone. He had hundreds of them. At the relief camp at GHSS Meppadi, Abhijith, a hotel management student , has been deleting the pictures one by one, as he cannot stand the memories they evoke.
Abhjith’s loss in the landslide has been immense as he is now the only person alive in his family with eight members — his father, mother, sister, brother and grandmother getting washed away along with his uncle, aunt and cousin sister who had come to his house thinking it was safer. Abhijith’s four neighbours, who were close to his family and had come to the house, too have gone missing. Abhijith was away in Thiruvananthapuram for his studies.
“Our village was so beautiful that I had taken so many images capturing its splendour — be it of Seethamakkundu, the towering green hills, the mist and the small waterfalls and of the numerous visits my friends had made to our place. But I have deleted most of them. What is the use of keeping them?” he asked.
Abhijith said his friends used to come to his house which is located at an elevated area which was perceived as safer during heavy rains. All 12 persons in his house including his father Subramanian, 50, mother Babitha, 45, sister Greeshma, 25, brother Girijith, 22, and grandmother Thayikuttty, 84, were swept away by the landslide. “Also, my uncle Parakkalam Narayanan, aunt Shanta and daughter Prathibha had come to our house, as they used to do during heavy rains.
Our house was viewed as a safe spot in the belief that we could run to safety to the elevated ‘10 Acre’,” Abhijith said. Also close family friend Balgopalan, wife Soumya and their twin children Vaishnav and Varsha had come to their house thinking that the area would be safer. “But all those calculations went wrong that night.
I had called home at 4pm on Sunday and at that time they were having a good time and told me that they were safe,” Abhijith said. The entire house was washed away in the landslide. The bodies of Subramanian, Greeshma, Narayanan and Shanta have been recovered while Babitha, Girijith, Thayikutty and Prathiba are missing.
Abhijith has lost another aunt Shyja who had gone to her relatives’ house at Chooralmala. Giving Abhijith company in the relief camp is cousin Pranav, who is the only one left in the family of uncle Narayanan..
