Odisha train tragedy: Dumka septuagenarian loses 2 sons, son-in-law

BHUBANESWAR: Seventy-year-old Sonwa Marandi from Dumka district of Jharkhand lost his two sons and son-in-law in the tragic triple train accident at Bahanaga on Friday that killed 288 people.
After three days of frantic search Marandi found body of one of his sons but is yet to locate the two others. Having lost the bread-earners of his family, Marndi was apparently in shock and clueless about what to do next. Back home, four women and five children are waiting for him to return with the men.
“They were in a group of five and were constantly either chatting on the phone or video calling with friends during the journey. When the accident occurred, one of them was on a video call with a friend who was in Chennai and suddenly the phone got switched off. When the friend tried to contact others, the phones kept ringing and none of them picked up the phone. Then they called us up in the village and informed us about the accident. We started on Saturday morning and have been searching for them since,” said Anil Marndi, nephew of Sonwa, who accompanied him.
Sonwa, a member of Santhal tribe, is unlettered and worked as a farm labourer to eke out a living. “My wife, my daughter and daughters-in-law, my grandchildren all are waiting for them to return. What will I tell them? How will I fend for them?” asked Sonwa, sobbing and showing the passport-size photographs of his two sons and son-in-law. After three days of frantic search, Sonwa could find one son’s body at Capital Hospital mortuary while two are still missing.
A traumatised Barun, an 18-year-old boy from Bathiya in Bihar, has become numb. Barun has been waiting for more than two hours for his mother at the police outpost on the premises of Capital Hospital.
Hismother went to another hospital in the city in search of the bodies of his father and uncle, who were in Coromandel Express on Friday. Barun had asked them to join him in Chennai where he works in a pet bottle industry. After asking so many questions, Barun in a low voice asked for water.