Tag: testimonies

Today our dharna took a dramatic turn as a fresh batch of around 150 people came in from Bhopal, fresh with determination and strength. Some like Bano Aapa, were returning, having been in the first group that inaugurated this dharna on July 26. This group joined some people who had stayed overnight even as most…

Today’s dharna sthal can best be described as soaked. It poured in the morning, and then it was hot and sticky all afternoon. It’s been a week of humid shuttling between Jantar Mantar and Columbus School. Despite heavy rains and terrible condition at Jantar Mantar, which seems to have soaked all the dirt of the…

Delhi’s incessant heat that persists even during the night resulted in an asthma attack for Irfan Bhai. Morning unfurled with hasty emergency calls asking for volunteers to take Irfan Bhai to AIIMS, one of India’s leading hospitals. However, failing to find a volunteer at such a short notice Vikas and Nawab Bhai started off for…

Most of us spent the last night waiting for the wind to blow from somewhere. When that didn’t happen most of us spent the night counting stars and braving mosquitoes. Due to some miscommunication the caretaker at the St’ Columbus school had switched off electricity and so we had to sleep outside in open. Nonetheless,…

Day 4: 29-07-2010 Today was relatively a light day though Delhi heat and humidity were present in equal measure. We started the day as usual with a fresh round of slogans. Some 100 Bhopalis joined us today. Amongst these were Mamu and Naeem who had also participated very actively in the last padyatra (footmarch) in…

The day began early in the morning, both today and yesterday, for the young women of Children Against Dow Carbide. Safreen, Yasmeen and Komal kickstarted their Delhi school outreach with their message about Bhopal, about their lives made unusual by virtue of growing up next to a toxic factory site which had seen the world’s…

The rains came and went with irritating irregularity. We had moved from our first day’s stakeout to the other side of the road. Not only was the original site more slush prone, located as it was right next to a public toilet, but also because the site across the street had an additional tree. We…

BY A NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS Coming to Delhi to knock at the doors to the conscience of the Central Government — the Prime Minister, in particular — is something that Bhopalis have done four times in the last five years. Each time supporters from India and abroad have responded with remarkable warmth. Each time, people…

More than 150 Bhopal survivors and people from water-affected areas began an indefinite dharna in Jantar Mantar that will last through the parliamentary session. The agitation intends to pressure the Central Government to revisit its recent decisions on issues of compensation, health care and rehabilitation, legal action against Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, and hazardous…