Soul of a star : Chapter 15 : The Lost 2 pages #celebrateblogging #teamwordweavers

TEAM WORDWEAVERS

Soul of a Star

Read the previous chapter here :

Chapter 14 : The First Key

Chapter 15 : The Lost 2 pages

Present day just after Jennifer has the talk with Shekhar ..

(Putting down the phone and speaking to herself)

No…this cant be happening…Taaraaaa… Jennifer shocked to hear the news could barely utter these words. She wanted to cry at the very moment but putting up a brave face she dialed:

“Hello, Kingfisher Airlines….."



Day 2 after Tara goes missing

Welcome to Mumbai Airport. 

Few hours later an announcement in the flight pulled Jennifer
out of her thoughts.

“What a perfect welcome. My friend is missing, her husband is going crazy finding her , my darling Roohi is hospitalized and the airport expects me to enjoy my stay..what the hell…!!”

Jennifer was mumbling as she got down at the Mumbai airport and hailed a taxi.

“Shekhar must be going crazy. He cant live without Tara and Roohi. Why is this all happening with the sweetest people I know?” She was furious with all this and seemed to question God for all that which was happening in Tara`s life. She had seen how happy were Dutta`s and now suddenly the recent turn of events seemed to have uprooted all that happiness in one go. She called up Shekhar.

“ Hello Shekhar”

“ Hi , Jenny”, Shekhar replied in a low tone.

“ Listen , I have landed in Mumbai and have some work. Once I finish it I would be there with you and Roohi asap. How is she right now?” , she asked

“Ok Jenny. She is the same as before, ill.”, came the reply.

The dry and sad tone of Shekhar told Jennifer what was going 

through his mind. He was a strong man who had endured many 

hard times alone but loosing Tara right now had completely 

shattered him. She was his pillar of strength. Jennifer finished 

her work at the earliest. She wanted to talk with Aryan for a 
little while.

The only other thing which had kept her a bit sane and composed from all this mess going on around her was Aryan. After their first meeting at Tara`s home, they had started chatting late at night and Jennifer`s so called night schedule of “working” late had gone for a toss completely. All those night hours of work were now spent with Aryan. Just meeting one person can turn things around in an instant. Aryan Ahuja, the man who didn`t have time for networking applications had started using them just to talk with Jennifer and those chats had now moved to the messengers like  Gtalk, whatsapp etc. It was a phase of getting to know the other person without seeming much obvious that there was something in the other person`s heart.

With these thoughts in mind, she called Aryan at night.

Jennifer : “ Hi , Aryan”.

Aryan : “Hello Jeans…I mean Jennifer. Sorry to call you by 

that name. I heard that name at Tara`s house so I thought it was 

easier to call you by that name.” (thinking ..Idiot, come up with 

a better line. The man who owns a company is tongue tied infront of a woman).

Jennifer : (thinking: Poor guy. C`mon speak..I want you to call 
me Jeans. I love it). “No issue. I don’t mind when the people whom I like call me by that name” ( did I just tell him that I like him? Stupid me….)

Aryan: "Like? Do you like me?”

Jennifer : (oh gosh..) “Yes. You are a nice person and why 
wouldn’t I like you? You are not my enemy. Are you?”

Aryan: (laughing to himself) “No way. I do know when I strike a 
chord with people. Ok listen. I want to meet you.”

Jennifer ( asking him teasingly ): “Why?”

Aryan: “I am a little free tomorrow so I thought that I might see 
you if you are in Mumbai and we could catch up. (I so 
desperately want to meet you Jennifer..) By the way I forgot to 
ask in all this talk that when are you coming to Mumbai?”.

Jennifer : “I am in Mumbai for a few days. Lets meet at Costa 
Coffee.”

Aryan: “Why that place”?

Jennifer: “That’s where Tara and Shekhar had first met and I 
love that place.”

Aryan: “See you tomorrow then. Bye”

Jennifer : “Bye. Good night.”

Day 3 after Tara goes missing.

The following day Jennifer decided to do some shopping so that 
she could meet Aryan. It was a way to distract herself from the 
thoughts of Tara. Some time for herself might help her keep her sanity. She even bought a new pair of denim.. Meanwhile Aryan was also nervous as to how he will meet Jennifer. He was nervous not to say the least. Finally they both meet at Costa Coffee.

Aryan : “You look gorgeous.”

Jennifer: “Thank you…You too look dashing in a tshirt 

and jeans. Wow.”

Aryan: “Is your work over?”

Jennifer: “Yes. I am staying for some more days.”

Aryan: “For ?”

Jennifer: “Shekhar and Roohi. They both need me.”

Aryan: (with a sad face): “Yes. That must be tough on the poor 
Shekhar. I wonder how he would be coping?”

Jennifer: “Have you met him ? How is Roohi?”

Aryan: “No… I was so busy that I did not get the time uptill 
now. I really want to meet them both.”

Jennifer: “If you don’t mind come with me after we finish this 
coffee.. I am thinking of going to meet them.”

Aryan: “Sure.. We can take my car.”

So Aryan called his chauffeur Ram singh in the parking lot  and told him,  “Baba. Take the day off and have rest. Come tomorrow now for the office. Give me the keys , I will drive.” And handing him a 1000 rupee note he took the keys from him and got in the car with Jennifer and drove to the hospital where Roohi and Shekhar were. On the way Jennifer aked him, “Baba? Why do you call him that?”

Aryan: “He has been with us since the time of my father. He has 
seen me grow up all through the years. I am just like his son and he is the most eldest person in my life and the one who is highly respectable. He`s been there for me at any time of the day or night”.

Jennifer was amazed at how this man Aryan Ahuja treated people who were much lower in ranks than him and she was both awed and had a feeling of respect towards this man she had started to know. Although the ice had been broken between the two long back but still when both were in 
proximity with each other, silence made them both uncomfortable and while they were both stuck in traffic Aryan asked Jennifer , “Music?” and on getting the  affirmative nod from Jennifer turned on the music system to hear the lyrics “ Jhuki jhuki si nazar beqaraar hai ki nahin” …the ghazal from 

Late Jagjit singh. Jennifer stole a glance towards Aryan to 
see him enjoying the ghazal with his eyes closed, humming the 
lyrics and tapping his feet on the clutch and accelerator. Here was a man who knew how to enjoy music.

Just out of curiosity Jennifer asked him, “You listen to ghazals in the car?” 

Aryan replied, "Baba listens to them. He lets me manage the company the way I want and I let him manage the car the way he wants. It’s a mutual understanding. Although I like rock and pop music as I was telling you that day but I am not aversive to ghazals at all. Infact they are just like incense sticks which burn and let the scent of emotions and poetry flow. Should I change it?” 

To which Jennifer replied, “ Let it be. I like it. It`s not everyday you get the time to listen to Jagjit Singh”. Was this ghazal going to be the new song in their lives just like Tara and Shekhar had “Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayein hum dono" in theirs?? Only time would tell.

They reached Apollo hospital and upon enquiring from the reception headed to room no. 167. They saw that it was a children`s room allotted to Roohi. Pista coloured walls had various cartoon characters painted on them – Snow white, Cinderella, Jasmine, Ariel, Mickey, Donald duck and many more. Shekhar was reading something on a piece of paper and on seeing both of them , he pocketed it and stood up.    

Aryan: “Hey Shekhar how are you man and how is Roohi”.

Shekhar: “Hi Jennifer. Thanks for coming Aryan. Roohi is 
taking a nap right now as you can see. Doctors have put her under observation. She complains sometimes of headaches and sudden weakness, blacking out in the process. Otherwise she is perfectly fine. I don’t know what is wrong with her all of a sudden. The only thing she hasn’t lost is her appetite.”, he said 
and forced himself to smile.

Jennifer: “Don’t worry Shekhar . She would be perfectly fine soon. Look at yourself. It seems you haven’t slept in a longtime. You should rest now. Aryan why don’t you take him to the cafeteria for some coffee or tea? It would be a change for him while I sit here with Roohi.”

Aryan: “Sure. Come on Shekhar. Lets have some tea and some 
fresh air. Even I haven`t had tea in the whole day”

Winking to Jennifer he went away taking Shekhar along while 

Jennifer baby sat Roohi for the time being. Roohi was sleeping 

peacefully oblivious to the happenings around her. Her angel 

face reminded Jennifer of Tara. With much difficulty she kept 

her tears in check. 

Aryan and Shekhar returned after some 45 minutes. When they returned Aryan asked Jennifer , ”Shall we go now? Its getting late. Let Shekhar rest.” He turned towards Shekhar and said, “In case of any need Shekhar remember that I am only a phone call away. Don’t hesitate in any way.” and Shekhar nodded. 

Jennifer asked him, “Any news of Tara?"

Aryan`s phone rang and in the meantime he picked up the call she saw Shekhar nodding a no but his eyes had a different gleam of hope in them. She knew that maybe he knew something which he wanted to tell but in the current circumstances with Aryan around he dare not speak.

Bidding both of them a goodbye Shekhar returned to the room 

and settled down in the chair. He wanted to decipher more 

clues but his state did not allow him to be awake any longer , 

plus he was having a splitting headache. He decided to close his 

eyes to let go off the physical pain. 


What followed was a dream- a flashback all mixed up of his past.

He saw Tara proposing before him bending on one knee, 

walking behind him. Just then lightning seemed to strike and 

everything seemed to turn around- Now when he turned to see 

Tara walking behind him, he did not see Tara anywhere. The 

images of him ransacking his study for those 2 pages flashed 

before him. Tara and Roohi had become those 2 most 

important pages of his life now. The Shekhar in his dream 
started to shout , “Where are they??Where are they?”. 

Bathed in sweat from his latest nightmare Shekhar opened his eyes wide with horror to see the second page lost ….ROOHI WAS NOT ON THE BED…   

Read the next chapter here: Chapter 16 :  The Name Game

“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”

Heroes: J & K Floods: The Unsung Heroes of Rescue Operations - 5

Read the previous part here : Part 4 

Here are 15 numbers : 

200+: Number of people reported to have died in the state in its worst floods in 109 years.

110,000: Official number of people rescued so far by the armed forces and National Disaster Response Force from different parts of the state.

30,000: Strength of the troops for rescue and relief operations deployed by the Indian Army (21,000 in Srinagar region and 9,000 in Jammu region)

20,000: Houses partially or completely damaged across the state.

2,500: Number of livestock said to be perished in the floods.

19: Relief camps set up by the Army in Jammu and Kashmir, housing at least 20,000 flood-affected people, and provisions are made to distribute essential food items and water bottles to them.

120,000: Number of bottles per day that six water filtration plants transported to Srinagar will produce.

10,700: Number of blankets provided to flood victims.

1,081: Sorties undertaken by the armed forces helicopters and aircraft

1,411: Tonnes of relief materials dropped.

31,500: Food packets airdropped and distributed by armed forces.

5700: Personnel included in the five task forces of Border Roads Organisation pressed into service since September 10.

1082: Number of tents (each to house eight people) supplied by the Indian Red Cross Society so far. In addition, it has sent 750 tarpaulins and 1000 kitchen sets.

300,000: 'Rail Neer' bottles sent by Railways to the flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir.

Deafening cries for help jolted journalist Riffat Abdullah out of his fourth floor house as swirling flood waters entered Srinagar's upscale Rajbagh locality after breaching nearby Jhelum river's embankment. He began calling frantically from top authorities for help as water level touched second floor. But nothing worked. The phone lines soon snapped. This left him with no option but to jump into the flood waters. He swam across to the river and got a boat, which he then used to rescue people along with more volunteers, who gathered immediately risking their own lives. The volunteers managed to get ropes and carried people on their backs. Abdullah alone saved 300 people. Like others, he too was caught unawares when the killer waters slammed into his neighbourhood, submerged buildings and washed away people, animals and cars.

"We thought we would die. But once we got rescued, we thought it was my duty to do this (rescue) work after saving my own family," he said. Abdullah continued saving lives while in the line of duty during which he documented unfolding tragedy at a nearby maternity hospital, where doctors had abandoned patients. "I saw babies dying." He said the first response should have come from disaster management authorities, but it came from the local people. "Everyone was crying... people swam in 20-30 feet flood waters. There was no other option." Abdullah and his fellow volunteers not just saved people around Rajbagh but also shifted them to a nearby hillock three kilometres away, where they were again left to fend for themselves for four days. "I was on the hillock for four days but no food packets were dropped. Five to six thousand people were there. There was this hope they would at least they would drop water.'' He saluted hundreds of volunteers for their extraordinary job. "They were better, better than me. I am not the only person who did it," he insisted.

Abdullah's bravery, which was incidentally filmed, has inspired many Kashmiris, many of whom have flown back from abroad, to volunteer for rescue and relief work. Shujaat Bukhari, a journalist for close to two decades, is among them. He has covered some of the worst atrocities in Kashmir and miraculously survived more than once. But the catastrophic floods are the worst he has seen. This has galvanised many volunteers like him into action. Bukhari slips into a life vest in the morning to work as a volunteer in flood-hit areas and returns to his office to edit his newspaper in the evening. Like tens of thousands of Kashmiris, he was trapped in his house in a relatively safer area near the airport. He was clueless about the fate of his relatives and colleagues, who were trapped in his newspaper office in central Srinagar, which was under 15 feet water. Bukhari managed to reach his office on Thursday and was terrified to see the destruction caused. The city looked ravaged with residents and tourists huddled together in groups on rooftops waiting for rescuers.

Bukhari's lawyer friend, Sajjad Sheikh, rushed to Delhi and returned with an inflatable boat for the rescue work. Their team of volunteers on Saturday evacuated 100 people, mostly tourists, from two hotels and houses in central Srinagar that has turned into a large swamp. Rescuing 90-year-old Onkar Nath Bhat and his wife, Dulari Bhat, from their house gave him the greatest happiness. The real magnitude of the tragedy was getting clear to many like Bukhari, as the water levels receded. "A youth who was to get married in Jawahar Nagar is missing after his mehndiraat (a day before wedding). Bride still has henna on her hands but the groom untraceable," said Bukhari. "You can imagine the state of affairs by the fact that our team provided medicines to 177 battalion of CRPF in Wazir Bagh. They said they are 70 in number," he said. The scale of the disaster practically washed away the local government, as many top officials had to be rescued. Most cabinet ministers were untraceable for days following the communications breakdown, leaving local volunteers and the Army to do the bulk of the rescue work.

Tens of thousands were trapped in the swirling waters and the exact number of deaths is not known even today. And with no officials in sight, people were left to fend for themselves. Soon after the city turned into a lake, the Indian army and air force provided the only government presence. But they too could not cope with the situation and were even accused of being selective in rescuing the people. In this situation, local volunteers emerged as a ray of hope for those who were stranded. On 8 September, as I went out to rescue the relatives, I saw fellow citizens not affected by the floods going to the flooded areas to get the marooned people out. With the help of a friend I succeeded in evacuating my relatives and inspired by the selflessness of the volunteers, I decided to make rescue my mission for the following eight days. In the past week, I saw that whoever was in a position to reach a flooded area was on the street to help the thousands of people who were trapped and those who had safely come to the shore. Many homes and key buildings in Srinagar remain submerged. Truckloads of relief material, such as fresh vegetables, rice, flour, fruit, water and other essentials have been sent.Though unorganised in nature, this network of volunteers is doing a commendable job on the ground that is still under water. In the absence of boats, they have made rafts by joining plastic drums, truck tubes, and wooden poles to reach out to the stranded people. I was surprised to see that even those whose homes were under water were out to rescue others.Sajjad Sheikh, a lawyer, told me he had hardly slept for more than four hours a day for the past nine days. He took out a loan of 350,000 rupees and has been going around rescuing people for more than 12 hours a day. "I raised a loan to buy the boat, but it was necessary. Who could I go begging to for a boat to save my people?" he said. There are many like Mr Sheikh who have made a difference in Kashmir in the last few days - non- governmental organisations like the Zakat Foundation are running boats with help from Kashmiri volunteers and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is doing a good job in rescuing people. I met Muhammad Ali Lone, a senior government officer who was helping pull out a boat stuck in deep waters. "I do it for God," he tells me.

The volunteers have been doing a fine job of rescuing people and distributing aid. Free food is being distributed along the roadside to the "homeless" and tents with community kitchens have come up on the grounds of mosques.Many youth have also acted as voluntary traffic regulators to direct cars and rescue vehicles through narrow lanes and by-lanes, as the main roads were closed."If we don't do this, there will be chaos and confusion and the already traumatised people will suffer 

more," said Musadiq Ahmad, one of the volunteers.With the sun starting to shine in recent days, Srinagar has seen people from the other parts of Kashmir starting to bring in relief to the city and the situation appears to be easing now. When I step out every morning, I see new medical camps that have been set up to treat the sick.With the three big hospitals - SHMHS Hospital, Lal Ded Maternity Hospital and GB Pant Childrens' Hospital - still flooded, privately-owned Ahmed Hospital is the only medical facility here catering to those who need immediate attention."We have thrown our doors open. But we have no medicine and there is no electricity," hospital owner Asif Khanday said. Many doctors and nurses have come out voluntarily to manage the camps. "The magnitude of the tragedy is huge and we are heading towards a health emergency," said Dr Yasir Wani who is working at one such camp. The floods are one of the biggest challenges the Kashmir Valley has faced in recent years, but the compassion shown by Kashmiris towards their fellow beings gives me the hope that we will overcome these most difficult times.

Among the tales of misery in the flooded city of Srinagar, there are stories of many "unsung heroes" who risked their lives to save many stranded persons. "Even before the Army, the police or anybody from the civil administration could reach us, we were rescued by locals who risked their own lives to save us," said Inderjeet Singh, a resident of Jammu who works at the state health department.As soon as the news of the flooding spread in the city, many local residents rushed in to help the stranded people. "We are thankful to the unknown boys who rushed to the house where we all were staying, made way into it and saved our entire family from drowning," said Abdul Aziz, a resident of Poonch district who was waiting for his turn to fly back home in an Indian Air Force plane.

Many people who were rescued say that they owe their lives to the local volunteers who jumped in to save them. "Death was imminent as the water level continued to rise and the rain did not stop. We thought that we were going to die and had taken shelter on the third floor of the house". "It was only when some young men came in a boat to rescue us that we took a sigh of relief," said Misbha, wife of Aziz while holding her three-year-old daughter and five-year-old son in her lap. Across Srinagar city there are hundreds of local residents who volunteered to help the stranded residents. "These young men did not care for their own lives and rushed to save us. They reached us at a time when nobody from the Army, police or other government establishment could reach us," said Murtaza Ahmed, a resident of Pir Bagh locality who is now taking shelter at a local hotel.

Not only the volunteers saved of the stranded people but also made arrangements of food and shelter. "We keep on hearing about violence in Kashmir Valley, but on ground we saw the humanitarian side of Kashmir, as residents in the unaffected areas opened up their houses for unknown people and provided them with food and shelter," said Anil Kumar (37), a resident of New Delhi.

My Friend from Jammu, Srishti was very worried as she could not get through to her relatives and had no news about them and when I told her to tag Indian Army in her SOS tweets, she felt a sigh of relief. This was her reaction afterwards-

I am scared for only one family personally- Parna, the houseboat owner who was my host last year in 2013 when I had gone to Srinagar. The man who treated us for 5 days. I shudder to think that what would have happened to his houseboat and his family... I still havent managed to make contact with him.

Heroes: J & K Floods: The Unsung Heroes of Rescue Operations - 4

The previous part is here - Part 3

The two army jawans, who were washed away in the floods during rescue operations in Pulwama in south Kashmir on September 7, were declared dead on Saturday. Naik Khem Chandra, 38, of 20 Kumaon Regiment and Rifleman Mir Owaisi Hussain, 24, of 15 Jakli Regiment, had gone missing days ago. They were part of a team of army personnel, which was on relief and rescue operation in Pampore. Their boat capsized and they got trapped in the strong currents of Jhelum river. A langar was sent from the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport at Rajasansi by a regular flight of SpiceJet airways. SGPC sewadars were on board.The food items were prepared by devotees at the Sri Guru Ram Das langar of the Golden Temple, gurdwara Ber Baba Buddhaji near Chabal (Amritsar) and gurdwaras in Khadoor Sahib, Goindwal Sahib and Tarn Taran. Devotees remained busy all night at these shrines, preparing the langar.Confirming the dispatch, SGPC publicity in-charge Kulwinder Singh told HT that 25,000 food packets were prepared at the Golden Temple and other shrines. Each packet, wrapped in aluminium foil, contained four large-sized paranthas prepared in desi ghee, besides cooked vegetables such as potatoes and pickle. He said each packet had sufficient food to feed two persons.This exercise will continue every day, with the number of packets likely to increase,” he added, referring to SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar’s statement that help to J&K flood victims would continue till the situation normalised.The entire SGPC staff has decided to donate their two-day salary of the current month to the J&K government’s flood relief fund. Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has indicated that it might spare a cargo plane for the SGPC for airlifting relief material to Srinagar.

Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to bring out the best in oneself. Take the case of these two doctors from Jammu and Udhampur who exhibited the highest degree of selflessness during the recent devastating floods in Jammu & Kashmir. Clearly they are unsung heroes for their actions show immense courage as well as conviction. Before leaving for Srinagar from Jammu, the two doctors had no inkling of what destiny had in store for them. Dr Subhash Chandra Abrol and Dr K C Sharma, from Jammu and Udhampur respectively, left Jammu for Srinagar through the picturesque Jammu-Srinagar highway on September 4 to attend JAKASICON (Jammu and Kashmir chapter of Association of Surgeons of India) conference, at which Dr Abrol was to get an award.

Soon after reaching Qazigund in the evening they got to know that the road between Srinagar and Anantnag in south Kashmir was flooded. "We could not find a single hotel to stay in Qazigund because all the hotels in the town were occupied. The very next day we reached the newly-built Emergency Hospital in Qazigund and offered our services to the hospital superintendent Dr Mirji Indrabi as the hospital was short off staff," said Dr Abrol. During their three-day ordeal in the hospital both the doctors took it upon themselves to look after each patient, at a time when the hospital as well as the city was completely cut off from the outside world. Talking about the ordeal Dr KC Sharma said, "We decided to do something for the people in distress as I knew how bad the situation was; I myself saw trees being uprooted by the strong current. Our call of conscience made us stay in the hospital and serve as much as we could." The doctors even conducted four caesarian operations and other procedures, thus, saving twelve precious lives with the help of the medical superintendent and the skeleton staff that was present. They also conducted free consultation for eight days (September 4-11). Both the surgeons, in the absence of any anesthetist and ultrasonologist, did all the three jobs themselves.

"All the four ladies who underwent ceasarian operations had to be operated upon right away. The most touching was the cry of Meema Begum whose husband was in the Border Security Force (BSF) and away from his home in Kolkata," said Dr Sharma. Manwhile, the news of the two doctors from Jammu staying in Qazigund's Emergency Hospital spread around and people from nearby villages started to flock the hospital for treatment. After staying in Qazigund for 5 days the doctors finally decided to get back to Jammu. They left their car in Qazigund and took an ambulance till Ramsu near Banihal. "We had to trek uphill to cross to the other side of the Banihal Pass so thatwe could get back to Jammu," said Dr KC Sharma.

Talking to TOI Dr Abrol said, "Despite not being able to reach Srinagar for the prestigious conference the eternal sense of satisfaction which I had after helping the people in distress was something which no award in the world can match. Those five days were the most memorable days of our lives." "There is no measure which can gauge the pleasure received in saving all the twelve lives and watching smiles on their faces and listening to the thanks of their relatives," said Dr KC Sharma.

The concluding part is here