KOZHIKODE: In the salt-aired alleys of Valiyangadi, Monday morning began like any other for the labourers who are the heartbeat of Kozhikode’s oldest grocery market. With the holy month of Ramzan under way, there was a quiet urgency. Workers like Jabbar, Ashraf and Basheer, along with Vinodan, had arrived at dawn, hoping to finish their gruelling task early and return home for Iftar with their families. Instead, the very walls they had worked beside for decades became their tomb.
Basheer, a 67-year-old lorry owner and headload worker from Atholi, was a fixture at the market. He had spent nearly 50 years navigating these narrow lanes, a trade he learned at his father’s side. Though he was financially secure, the pull of the market was a lifelong bond. “He started here as a boy, alongside his father,” recalled his colleague, Muhammed Kabeer.
Beside him was 53-year-old Ashraf, a fellow Atholi resident who had spent 33 years as a labourer, a man known for sticking to his work and heading home. Both Basheer and Ashraf would take goods from Valiyangadi and distribute them in different parts of Atholi in Basheer’s lorries.
Jabbar, 55, represented the more fragile side of Valiyangadi’s workforce. A resident of Kinassery, Jabbar worked for Gama Agencies, a shop selling bakery flour and pulses, where the accident occurred. Unlike his companions, Jabbar’s family struggled financially, and his steady hands were their primary support.
As the morning heat rose, the men gathered on the veranda of the old passport office building to rest after a heavy effort. They were sitting together, perhaps sharing a quiet word about the evening’s fast, when the concrete slab above them gave way without warning.
Vinodan, a Thiruvangoor resident, has been working with Basheer for years. His family, consisting of his ailing mother, wife and 17-year-old son, a Plus Two student, has been relying on his income.
“Vinodan’s family is struggling financially, and now their future is uncertain. His wife goes to a rural employment scheme for daily wage work. They need major help from the government,” said Vijayan Kannanchery, a neighbour. The tragedy is sharpened by the bitterness of what might have been prevented. While workers claimed they were frequently told the building would be demolished, no action followed.
“We pay our rent every single month on the 5th,” noted Gafoor, the owner of Gama Agencies. “We never received a notice to vacate.” In Valiyangadi, the shutters of the Gama godown remain pulled down, a stark reminder of four lives spent in service to the market, ended by the very neglect they had long worked under.
“Everyone is in shock,” Muhammed Kabeer said. “They would just do their work and go home... but today, they didn’t make it back.”