Alka Singh, a producer at a Gurugram-based production house, has not been able to meet her family in Sarkhaghat, Himachal Pradesh, in a time of crisis. The roads connecting her village were washed away in a recent landslide. Ms. Singh’s elderly father, brother, and sister-in-law live in the foothills, a danger zone where most houses have been vacated, their anxiety escalating as they see water washing away farms, roads and houses around them every other day.
Over phone calls about eight to 10 times a day, Ms. Singh and her father try to hide their emotions but she is left in tears every time she hears the cries in videos from her home State posted on social media. She then calls back her family to check on them, only to cry again after the call ends.
“I have quit watching TV news as it left me more panicked. But how much can one can skip social media with the kind of job I have? Ms. Singh asks, helpless as she is, nearly 400 km away from her family stuck in the deluge.
