BENGALURU: On a day when rains hurled mercilessly in the city and people watched in horror as two women and a man were carried away to their deaths, it took a quick thinking 65-year-old woman to set aside her fear and rescue eight children from drowning.
On Friday evening, Jayamma, a resident of Kurubarahalli, rushed out when waters entered her house in a fierce gush. As she came to the road, she realised that her tenants’ children, aged between two and 10 years, were all stuck inside their homes with no one coming to their aid. Their parents had gone out for work and hadn’t yet returned.
“It was dark and I could only see those helpless children inside. The water was already at knee level and I knew that if I did not get them out immediately, disaster would have struck,” she said.
However, pulling them all out of the two houses was not an easy task. There was no one to help. Jayamma, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, determinedly carried two children at a time and waded through water for about 100 metres to put them on a high ground. By the time she had completed three trips to rescue all the eight children, the water in the houses had reached waist level. The water levels eventually rose five feet before it started draining. Soon enough, the children’s parents, who are daily wage labourers, also returned.
“All I could think of was taking the children to safety. I think God gave me the strength to do it,” she said. A widow, Jayamma, had rented two tiny houses on Kurubarahalli 18th cross to the migrant families from Raichur and Gangavathy.
Jayamma said only the thought for the children’s safety kept her from thinking about her own and the destruction in her home. “I knew the furniture inside my house, rations and clothes would all be washed away. But I can get them back anytime. How could I ever forgive myself if anything happened to the children,” she asked.
Wet days till Monday
After Friday’s rain poured woes on commuters, there was some relief for Bengalureans during the day as rain picked up pace only late on Saturday night. BBMP made pre-emptive measures to shift residents in low-lying areas. Weathermen have predicted rainfall in the city till Monday. Bodies of the mother-daughter duo, who were washed away in a drain in Kurubarahalli on Friday, have not been recovered.