It has been more than five years since I had one of the most dreadful experiences of my life. Remembering those days still makes my soul scare. I remember the night of 6
th Sept, 2014 when it started raining relentlessly, I was staying in the Chenab hostel of NIT Srinagar. It rained for two full days and we were very happy of our minors being cancelled but we were fully unaware what we were going to be struck by.
On 8
th Sept after finishing our day we all went to sleep like unabated
kids. But what we woke up to clearly turned our sleeps into nightmares as we were struck by Flash Floods. I was staying on the ground floor so as soon as we realized that water was rising at a tremendous pace we yelled, we cried, we panicked we did everything a teen can do in such situations as whole of our ground floor was submerged. My wardrobe was full of fashion brands like Van Heusen, Peter England, Allen Solly, Louis Philippe and to my utmost despair my favourite clothes were going with the flowing water. I clutched onto some but most of them I lost. We had nowhere to go and at that time we realized that the batch unity plays an important role as we stayed with our friends on the top floor. In the mean time we were informed by the administration to not panic as building had a firm foundation base made up with the usage of Ultratech Cement. But with the every passing hour we started to panic as the administration declared their helplessness to evacuate us as the college didn’t had resources to evacuate us and neither could they do anything to stop the alarming flow of water. We were faced up with the crisis of water shortage and food shortage, so we had to take few steps in that respect. So, we got the ration from the mess by making boats from torn of furniture. We somehow survived the whole day at the top floor and terrace. Most of us didn’t slept the whole night as the fear of something bad could happen to us was not leaving our concise.
Aditya Birla Group’s Idea was the lone bright spot
All this while we were unable to contact our homes and we were worried about our parents. The students had been the users of various network operators and to everyone’s despair the most favoured operator on campus failed at first. As the time passed on other networks started to close its services and it created a chaos among us but one network that didn’t dropped off was our very own Idea Network. All of us were able to talk to our dear ones through Idea only. Next day early morning we all woke up to surprise as we started to hear the loud noise of helicopters and aircraft carriers, as at that time my faith in god was reinstated as it seemed like god has sent his own army in the face of Indian Air Force personnel. We were told by the officers of IAF that they will relocate us from here to some of the refugee camps in the vicinity.
After three long hours of operations the local bodies attached us to some of the refugee camps. But this is where the real struggle started as we started to roam for basic needs of a human being as we entered into a quarrel with locals for food packets, drinking water and other basic needs. As day in day out we were struggling to earn our living but the only motivation to keep going was that we were able to talk to our dear ones-thanks to Idea. As the days passed by we were constantly being scrutinized by the locals for encroaching upon their food packets. We were also given life threats. Our mobile phones were out of power and we had not talked to our parents for 4 days
So after five days on 13 Sept we realized that we can’t sit here and wait for the government to get us evacuated. At that time we all decided to embark on the journey of Leh which was around 450kms from our location. We knew nothing about the road conditions or other environmental constraints of the area. We hired a traveler at a cost which was almost 3 times its daily cost and started in the morning for one of the most beautiful journey of our lifetime. We were not sure whether we will be able to achieve anything through this or not but we just wanted to make things happen. On our way to Leh we went through one of the most scenic views on earth and we got to pay our tribute to our brave-hearted soldiers on Batra point in Kargil. Most of us have never done such a long journey, so the health issues started to creep in.
After 23 hours of long and tiring journey we reached Leh Airport and basically our whole campus flocked the airport premises. Then Leh administration realized that the population of Leh has doubled in less than 4 hours. Refugees in such a huge number were really unexpected for the Leh administration. But they were very generous in their approach towards us as IAS Deepak Singh, District Collector Leh briefed the MHRD about the situation in hand. Meanwhile Idea announced its free operations throughout the state so that everyone can contact their near ones.
Then, MHRD directed the local authorities to reserve all the hotels for the students of NIT Srinagar. As Leh airport does not have a high traffic volume so airport generally closes after 1000hrs. But on that day Government of India after the normal operation hours sent the Air India planes for our evacuation. We were welcomed at Indira Gandhi International airport by the Deputy General Manager, Chief Operating Officer of IGI and a swarming media houses.
Looking back at those days still give me the immense belief that I can go through anything. My parents were my biggest motivation at that time and it was all because of Idea that I could made it through that phase. At that time I made a stern decision that after my graduation I will build my professional career in one of the brands in IT/Telecom Sector. So, in order to pursue my dream & learn on each day of my life I joined Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi. I hope IIFT will act as a bridge to fulfill my dreams.