While the whole country has been praising the efforts of Army for rescuing the stranded people from different parts of Uttarakhand, a family from Thanda in Amritsar says that had it not been for some journalists of electronic media, they would have been still stranded and could not have returned safely.
Several relieved faces with varied emotions came at the ISBT, Sector 43 here after being rescued from the Sri Hemkunt Sahib and Gobind Ghat. They were relieved but the nightmare which they had gone through still haunted them.
On July 13, a family from Thanda, Amritsar had started their pilgrimage to Sri Hemkunt Sahib. On the same day, they reached Rishikesh even as the rains welcomed them there. But they had never dreamt that this pilgrimage was going to be most horrific experience of their lives.
“We reached Sri Hemkunt Sahib on June 15. It was raining but we had experienced this kind of weather often when we came here earlier. After spending some time at Sri Hemkunt Sahib, we paid our homage but at the same time we were horrified to see darkness engulfing the whole area. This was scary,” said Preetam Singh.
He was visiting the Gurudwara with his entire family and also his in-laws.
The family was stranded at Gobind Ghat for five days, a nightmarish experience for them. The group comprised of two males, two female and four children. They hardly had anything to eat or drink all these days and kept worrying whether they would survive the nightmare or not.
They saw a ray of hope when a team of army reached there for rescue, “It gave us hope when army and air force came with rescue helicopters. But they were only rescuing children and women. We did not want our family to get separated this way not knowing where the women and children would be put up," said Preetam Singh. When the condition worsened, they finally sent children and women to Joshimath through the rescue helicopter. “Spending two days without children was difficult," Singh said.
The family is grateful to some reporters of electronic media who made it possible for the two male members of the family reunite with their children. The children appealed to the reporters to get them united with their father. Using their influence with the rescue team, the journalists persuaded them to bring the male members of the family to Joshimath.
”The reporters are like angels to us. They ensured that the entire family was together," said Preetam Singh. They left for their village of Thanda, nine kms from Amritsar appreciating the role of the journalists in helping them reunite.