Flood in Assam
(Short Story by M. Menonimus)
Flood in Assam
Flood in Assam
The flood is rising. The mighty Brahmaputra has gone mad. The high roads are underwater. The rain is pouring down heavily. The night is deep. All the children of Ayesha are asleep. Her husband Abdulla is in Delhi. He is a labourer, a poor labourer. He works in the chemical industry on the outskirt of Delhi. The wage is comparatively smaller because he is still an irregular labourer. His love for his wife is deep and sweet. Until he went to Delhi he could hardly spend a night without having his wife on his bed. He was unwilling to leave his wife for Delhi but extreme poverty compelled him to leave home. He sends money regularly with which Ayesha is getting managed the house with her children somehow. In the television news, he comes to hear that the mighty Brahmaputra has got full of water. It is rising above the danger line.
The night is deep. It has crossed twelve an hour ago. Since Abdullah’s hearing of the news of the flood in Assam, especially in the lower Assam, he is under deep tension. He thinks about Ayesha and his children. Are they also got affected by the flood? How are they? He is too poor to buy a cell phone. Yet he purchased a handset of mobile phone borrowing one thousand rupees from one of his fellow workers and has sent it to his wife with the hope of keeping communication with her. He often calls her from the nearest P. C. O. He thinks if he could have a talk at this moment with Ayesha! But it is a deep night. The P. C. O. is off. Yet there are seven hours to the sun rising. He becomes restless. He must know how Ayesha is. He has been lying on his bed but he could have no sleep. Then he rises up from his bed and goes to the nearby room and calls out A. Ahmed, one of his fellow-labourers. With some bitter feelings, Ahmed gets up from his raw sleep and opens the door. Then Abdullah asks for Ahmed’s cell phone. Ahmed says that he has only four rupees balance. “Friend, I’ll put ten rupees balance on your phone in the morning. Let me have it.” Abdullah requests his friend.
Ahmed gives the phone to Abdullah and sleeps again.
Abdullah dials the numbers. The phone begins to ringing, ‘Cring, cring, cring…’
Ayesha almost instantly receives the call and replies, “Hello. Who are you?”
“I am yours, Akram’s father. How are you? What is the news of flood?” Abdullah asks all out of a breath.
From the opposite direction, Ayesha replies, “The water is flowing above the danger level. Our houses are underwater. The hens, cocks, cows and the calf are washed away by the flood.”
“Where are you now?”
“Now we are on a raft struggling to reach
the compound of the Namghar of the next village. It is raining at random. Almost all the cattle and fowls of surrounding villages are wafted away to the belly of the Brahmaputra. Some school-going children are drowned.”
“How are my babies?”
“They are with me on the raft. Now we are caught by a whirlpool. The raft is orbiting itself. Oh! It is…We are…. we are… drowning….”
“Abdullah calls aloud, “Hello, hello, hello….” For a moment he hears a loud hue and cry and then nothing. Abdullah keeps on crying, “Hello, hello…”
But there was no reply. 0 0 0
Flood in Assam
N.B. The short story ‘Flood in Assam’ originally belongs to the book ‘The Prostitute and Other Stories‘ by Menonim Menonimus.
Flood in Assam
Books of Composition by M. Menonimus:
- Advertisement Writing
- Amplification Writing
- Note Making
- Paragraph Writing
- Notice Writing
- Passage Comprehension
- The Art of Poster Writing
- The Art of Letter Writing
- Report Writing
- Story Writing
- Substance Writing
- School Essays Part-I
- School Essays Part-II
- School English Grammar Part-I
- School English Grammar Part-II..
Books of S. Story by M. Menonimus:
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