Mothers mourn their dead children

Lying on bed number four of Bharati Hospital’s ward number 11, Lalita Rathod keeps staring into space and has hardly spoken to anyone since Monday evening.

A survivor of the building collapse in Dhankavdi, nearly 12-weeks pregnant Rathod doesn’t even know if the foetus is safe or not. The only word that comes to her lips is ‘Sonu’.

The hapless mother does nothing but remember her one-and-a-half-year-old son who died in her arms when the building collapsed.

“I was about to have lunch and since he was hungry, I decided to breastfeed him. I had him covered with my sari and he was lying on my side when the building collapsed. I tried to save him, but he got crushed under my weight,” said Lalita.

Hailing from Hyderabad, Lalita has been living in Pune since five years with her husband Chandu (also injured and admitted in ward number 10). A mother of two, her eldest son (4) lives at her native place while Sonu lived with her. Nearly three months pregnant, the grieving mother has no clue if her unborn child is safe. “The doctors carried out a sonography but I don’t know if it is okay,’’ she said However, doctors confirmed that the foetus is safe and pregnancy is unaffected.

Next to the women’s surgical ward, another miserable mother Laxmi Kamble doesn’t even have the luxury to shed tears for the death of her first-born.

“My three daughters were in that building. The eldest daughter, (Neelam, 14) was at the school and was saved. Of the remaining, Nayana (12) died while two others Namrata and Sayli are admitted in ICU. We don’t have any close relatives in this city and all I want is that whatever remains of my family should be safe. I lost my first-born to that wretched building, I am cursing my ill-luck for moving there,” said Kamble. Her family had moved to the building 14 days ago.

By Alifiya Khan