Suresh, a labourer, takes time to come out of his ramshackle tile-roof house and speaks candidly, “I am drunk; hence, I am a bit apprehensive. Please do not mind.” He collapses on the concrete platform and breaks down.
“I do not want any money. I want Sukanya [his younger daughter] back.” Suresh keeps on repeating the same thing, while showing pictures published in newspapers of the tragedy that has struck the family.
His younger sister, Teertha, who joins Suresh, says his brother has been in this state since Sunday afternoon. “He has not been able to bear with the death of his two daughters — more so of Sukanya, with whom he shared dinner on Saturday night,” she says.
It has been hard for Suresh and his family to bear with the loss of three-year-old Sukanya and seven-year-old Suraksha 15 km away from Moodibidri.
The two drowned in a pool of water that had accumulated in an abandoned stone quarrying site located in the land belonging to Suresh.
While Sukanya was studying in an anganwadi, Surakhsha was in the Class 2 in a school in Kareyangadi near Beluvai.
TragedyRecalling the tragedy, Ms. Teertha, who has been taking care of Suresh’s three children, said she was washing clothes when Sukanya asked her to go with her out in the open to attend to nature’s call. “I sent Suraksha to go with her,” she said. However, she began to worry when the two did not return for nearly an hour. “When I went looking for them, I saw Suraksha floating in the water. I then rushed to a neighbour’s house to seek help,” she said and felt helpless that she could not save the children.
Around 1 p.m., residents of Maladi Road, where Suresh’s house and land is located, and Beluvai residents arrived at the spot.
Blame“Nobody was ready to enter the water,” said Raghu Poojary, a resident. Only one dared to enter the pit by tying a rope around his waist. It took nearly two hours to retrieve Sukanya’s body.
Suresh’s neighbour Sabiha Banu, however, blamed Suresh.
“He did not bother to get the abandoned quarry closed,” she said.
