Malin survivors: Rudra and now Rishi — life comes full circle for Lembhes and ‘miracle baby’

Pramila recounts how in the morning of the fateful day, she was sitting on the floor with her one-month-old son Rudra on her lap. “I was feeding him medicine and suddenly I felt something heavy falling all over me. It all happened so suddenly that I didn’t understand what was happening. It took me some time to realise that the mountain behind our house has collapsed on our house. I could not see anything, there was wet mud all over me,” she recollects.

[related-post]

Watch Video: What’s making news

Pramila continues, “My back started aching terribly. Each passing minute appeared like a day. Rudra was still in my hands and had begun crying. He stopped crying after some time and slept. After around eight hours, he began crying again. That’s when I started feeling the mud above us being lifted by someone. I was scared for Rudra’s life but thankfully both of us survived.”

In Pune, the doctor who first helped two-month-old Rudra says that her memory of the incident is equally vivid. Dr Priti Kalyankar, who as part of the state-run emergency medical services was at the spot, said that she still remembers the hapless infant covered with mud while being held tightly between his mother’s legs. “Pramila was slipping in the mud and her cries were getting faint when the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team managed to hear some sounds. The team undertaking the excavation work immediately went to the rescue. We were near the spot and despite being knee-deep in mud, my ambulance driver and I slowly held on to others and managed to take the baby from the mother,” Kalyankar said.

“Rudra was barely two months old and was immediately administered oxygen from a small cylinder we had carried. He was later taken to the primary health centre (PHC) at Adhivre where a thorough check showed that the infant was alright,” Kalyankar added.

Due to the back injury caused by the landslide, Pramila was hospitalised for more than two weeks. Pramila says that she feels fortunate that none from her family died in the landslide, which claimed so many lives two years ago and is eagerly waiting to shift to the new houses where the Malin survivors would be rehabilitated. Her husband Machindranath cannot thank his stars enough that Rudra and his wife were saved. “I want him to study in an English medium school,” he said.

The government-run Adhivre Primary Health Centre which treats a population of 8,000 spread across Malin and eight other villages, has seen more than 65 deliveries in the past two years. Dr AG Dighe, medical officer at the PHC, Adhivre said that Pramila was regular for check-ups and the delivery was also normal. Sister Malan Chavan, who was also present at the time of the landslide and had assisted in Pramila’s delivery, said that two years later, memories have dimmed.

“At the site of Malin and surrounding vasti (smaller hamlets) itself, there were nine deliveries in the last two years,” Chavan said.

(With inputs from Garima Mishra)