RAIPUR: With blank and dry eyes, a woman sits with her two children on either side, waiting to receive the mortal remains of her husband who was killed in an IED blast triggered by Maoists in the Dantewada district of Bastar division on Wednesday.
Showing no visible expression on her face, Mangal Dai, the wife of the deceased driver Dhaniram, shares her worries during the wreath-laying ceremony at Police Lines. "How will I raise my children alone? Every day, he would go to work and return late, making several kinds of excuses", she said.
"Now he is gone forever. How am I going to fend for myself and my children? I don't know if I get an opportunity, I will ask the authorities how I should live now with no help around. They study in Class XI and VII. Their father has been martyred, but who will look after us now?", Mangal Dai asked hopelessly. She stopped talking when her daughter started crying inconsolably.
The sight at Police Lines was heart-wrenching, with tribal people as part of the ritual, howling in cries continuously.
A mother with tears rolling down her eyes said she has three sons, and she has lost one. "One gone doesn't mean I have two sons. He will continue to be my son. Just that he has left for his heavenly abode", she said.
Another woman, the wife of one of the deceased jawans, said she has a one-year-old son and no one else in the family. "I have no idea what I should expect from the government. What can they give? Can they bring my husband back?", she asked.
A relative of the deceased jawan said: "They say Maoism is cornered and over, but it doesn't seem true. The government should think of eliminating the Maoists".
The family members were simmersed in grief to such a level that they were falling short of words and expressions and refused to be nudged. It was just tears speaking.
