Author: Riddhi Dangar & Sudeep
Chakravarti
Publication: India Today
Date: February 26, 2001
She has 14 stitches across her scalp.
She is four. And she is the symbol of hope for an entire village. Riddhi
Deodan Dangar crawled out of the rubble, bleeding, screaming-and alive.
She haltingly recounts the day, gently urged by grandmother Hiruben. "The
house started to move, then it became like the night. And then I remember
nothing."
The village does. A tiny dot of
1,500 people and 265 houses near Morvi in the heart of Saurashtra, Moti
Barar records a relatively modest five dead, all houses destroyed, Rs 1,500
of government dole per family, 10 kg of potatoes, five litres of kerosene
and some handouts dropped from the trucks speeding relief to Kutch. They
also remember the day last week when the motorcade of Keshubhai Patel,
chief minister of Gujarat, sped past a roadblock of folded hands without
stopping. "We have kept away from God and politicians these past 17 days,"
wisecracks Dinesh Dangar, the village wit. "For us, Keshubhai is like a
90-kg stone." Then his eyes mist over. "This little flower of an orphan
girl shows us the way, makes us smile at life. If a child can take such
pain, we can, too."
For starters, they are clearing
debris off their homes, painstakingly separating stored grain from mud,
realising the urgency of some form of solid shelter before rains lash the
area. The elders even indulge in gallows humour: "If we had died, you would
have got a lakh rupees." And once in a while, they stop by to look at the
girl playing quietly with other children.
Next, they plan to take Riddhi to
Ravi the bull. He sits near a field of empty blue relief tents, rooted
to the spot since the quake. If anybody can move Ravi, they figure, Riddhi
can.
