Anshu Gupta

People crossing a narrow bridge made out of bamboo during the Kosi floods of 2008

According to the Government of Bihar, 236,632 houses were fully or partially destroyed across the districts of Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria, and Purnea with the estimated damage of about Rs. 5,935 million*.

All the human innovations fail when a disaster strikes. Be it roads for mobility or your huge cables for communication, we have to find temporary solutions to go on with our lives and we cannot always wait for the help to reach us. Here is a small but very risky attempt made in times of a flood to reach the other side. I have passed through many such narrow trails, everytime experiencing my heart pound as to how risky they were. I even once questioned a soldier leading me on a trail somewhere on the high mountains, “Are you not scared?”, to which he responded, “Paer hi to hai, kaun jane kab fisal jaye” (It’s just my legs, who knows when it slips). It still haunts me how courageous yet reckless it sounded.

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