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I was ten years old when the gas leaked. In our neighbourhood there was a house where snakes had built their nest. The people in the house used to burn chillies to drive away the snakes. On the night of the gas when all of us woke up coughing and gasping for breath, the first thought that came to our mind was that it was the snake cure gone awry. We opened the door and saw a great number of people all rushing past. Soon we came to know that it was gas coming from Union Carbide's factory. My father said " Lets not run away, because we will surely get separated from each other in this crowd and darkness. If we have to die at least let us die together". All of us were coughing and vomiting and it was getting more and more unbearable. My grandparents had come for a visit, they too were in a miserable state. We opened the door after about four hours. In the morning we went to a tent that had been set up on the roadside and got some medicines from there - eye drops and pills. But these were of no use. My four year old sister Asha died three days after the gas. My father used to work in a sweet shop making sweets. Ever since the gas he can hardly work. There are times when he thrashes about all night like a fish out of water. Most days he stays in bed. My grandfather used to get very breathless and cough a lot. he suffered this for four years till he died. I got married when I was seventeen. My husband used to live in the same neighbourhood. He is a carpenter but can work for hardly fifteen days in a month. He has cough, pain in the chest and can not see properly. He was not given any compensation because he could not present his medical records. During the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992 his parents' house caught fire and all the papers got burnt. My parents could not get any compensation for the death of my sister and grandfather. The judge asked for papers, but who was thinking of papers three days after the disaster. The officials said that my grandfather did not live in Bhopal and we had to provide documents to show that he was with us on the night of the disaster. |