RAIPUR: But for a tea break, five friends from Chhattisgarh could have been swept away in the flash floods that devastated the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river valleys in Nepal on Wednesday.They survived, but then had to spend two anxious days watching the fury of the swollen Trishuli river from an elevated spot.Narayan Sen, Dinesh Ojha, Prem Singh Jagat, Yatendra Prakash and Dinesh Singh Thakur, all aged between 50 and 60 years and residents of Mana Camp area in Raipur, returned home on Saturday.“We were lucky that we stopped for tea on August 26 when the flash floods struck. If we had left 10-15 minutes earlier, we might have got trapped,” Narayan Sen (53) who runs a salon, told news agency PTI.“Had we not stopped there, we do not know what would have happened,” he said.The group left Raipur on August 21 and reached Nepal the following day. They had hired a car and planned to visit the Pashupatinath Temple, Manokamana Temple and other tourist attractions.At around 9.30-10 am on August 26, they stopped for tea at a hotel in Malekhu town in Dhading district.“There we learnt that a bridge ahead had been washed away in a flood. The hotel belonged to an Indian, who helped us a lot and provided us food,” Sen said.The friends became eyewitnesses to an unfolding disaster.“We saw cars being swept away in the Trishuli river. Bodies and a lot of other things were also being carried away by the current. We were scared. There was always a fear that the flood situation might worsen,” Sen said.The group took shelter at a higher spot at Malekhu and spent the night in their car. Local residents and authorities helped them.Thakur (55), a police head constable, said they were around 50 km from Pashupatinath Temple when the flood struck.“While having tea at the hotel, we noticed people suddenly becoming restive. Later, we learnt about the devastation caused by the flood. We heard that entire villages, buildings, offices and hydropower projects had been devastated,” he said.They later visited the bank of the Trishuli river to see the situation for themselves.“What we saw is very difficult to describe in words,” said Thakur.“We kept chanting Lord Shiva’s name, and we feel his blessings protected us,” he added.Thakur praised the local administration and police. “There was no electricity and water, but the administration and police helped us. They told us that we were at a higher place and should not worry,” he said.The group remained in touch with their families through the internet, and used the helpline provided by the Indian government to share their location.“Internet service was working well there, so we remained in contact with our families and did not panic,” Thakur said.The friends finally left Nepal on August 28.Amid the tragedy, the five friends shared a tender moment when local women security personnel tied rakhis on their wrists.“We were supposed to return from the trip after the Rakhi festival, so our sisters had already given us rakhis. The women security personnel deployed there tied these rakhis on our wrists. That was the most comforting moment,” Thakur said.Dinesh Ojha, who runs a tailoring shop, said the scenes they witnessed after the flood would stay with them forever.“We will never be able to forget what we saw. Many people were desperately searching for their missing family members,” he said.“We slept in our car, but we could not really sleep. There was always the fear that another flood might come,” Ojha said.“We are happy that finally we have reached back home,” he added.(With agency inputs)
