Grief after train derailment disaster

Six-year-old Rupsa Sheikh is in a state of shock and has stopped speaking after her mother Salma died in the train derailment in West Midnapore district.
   
The future is bleak for Rupsa, a resident of Kalna in Hooghly district, as her father is also critically injured in the mishap yesterday.

"Her father is at the Kharagpur hospital. He is critically injured. His leg has been amputated. We are told there is little hope for his survival," a nurse tending to her said.

"She is refusing to respond after her mother died," she said.

Aftab Ali Absari, a student of Class X, has a vacant look.
   
His father, Illyas Absari, mother, Israt Bano and five-year-old brother, Alisher, who were travelling to Kolkata from Nagpur, were killed in the accident.

"I don't know ...," he mumbles when asked whether anyone else he knows at Nagpur has been informed about the tragedy.

Another nurse cradles a one-and-half-year-old boy, who was travelling with his father, mother and grandparents to Mumbai.

"We know his first name is Myank from railway records. We have no idea what happened to those travelling with him," the nurse says.

Mamoni Begum, who was going along with her daughter to meet her husband, who works as a goldsmith in Mumbai, is yet to trace her daughter even after visiting three hospitals.

"Have you seen my daughter? Her name is Nargis?" she keeps asking repeatedly.
   
Tushar Kanti Das of Arambagh in Hooghly district was taking his newly-wedded wife Kalyani to Mumbai.

"Both died," his grieving relatives said.

The same was the fate of newly-wedded couple Manoj Biswas and Kalpana who were travelling to Bilaspur. Their bodies were found huddled together in the S-4 coach, one of the three worst affected.

The world has come crashing down for the parents of Siddharta Debbnath, of Kalna and a professor of the BC Roy Dental College in Haldia.

He was travelling to Mumbai for a new assignment and was to take his wife and four-year-old daughter later.

"He was killed," his father said.