BHUBANESWAR: Oblivious to the tragic fate that awaited him, Rupak Nayak boarded Coromandel Express at Balasore like every other weekday. His destination was Bhadrak town where his seven-year-old son and wife were waiting for him to come home. This Friday, a friend had advised Rupak to take the bus with him, but he refused. The bus journey would have stretched his wait to reach home by nearly an hour.
“Hey, I just boarded Coromandel. Don’t cook tonight. We will go shopping and eat outside,” Rupak told his wife Anita over the phone while making himself comfortable in the packed general compartment of the train. As the doomed Coromandel Express picked up speed, he had no clue of the approaching fate.
The time was 7.30 in the evening. An unsuspecting Anita was surfing channels on TV when the breaking news about Coromandel Express caught her eyes. Struck by panic, she grabbed her phone and dialled Rupak’s number. His phone was switched off. Fearing the worst, she called her in-laws at Sankhula village in the Manjuri Road area.
Rupak’s brother, relatives and some villagers hired a couple of four-wheelers and immediately rushed to Bhadrak town. A team decided to stay at Bhadrak district headquarters hospital while others proceeded towards Balasore. One group went to Balasore medical college and another reached Soro community health centre.
It was a night of unspeakable horrors for everyone. Broken and limbless bodies arriving at frequent intervals heightened their fears. The enormity of the tragedy had stunned them but they clung to the hope that Rupak might have survived the crash.
It was daybreak but there was still no sign of Rupak. Someone advised the team at Soro to visit the accident site at Bahanaga and search the local school compound. At around 7.30 am, their worst fears were confirmed as Rupak’s mutilated body was the first in the line of corpses lying on the floor. After completing the necessary formalities, the body was brought to his native village and consigned to flames. Forty-five-year-old Rupak was a Balasore College of Engineering and Technology system administrative officer.
He lived with his family in Bhadrak town and used to travel up and down to Balasore on a monthly season ticket (MST) every working day. On Friday, Rupak was in the general coach following the engine of the Coromandel Express. Almost all the passengers in his coach were crushed to death after the superfast express rammed into the goods train.