Bhopal, India - Flashbacks of the ghoulish drive through Bhopal, with sick and blinded gas victims imploring him for help, still haunt autorickshaw driver Jeevan Shinde. Now 59 years old, Shinde has not got over the horrors that unfolded before him that cold December night in 1984 when a pesticide plant run by US company Union Carbide spewed methyl isocyanate gas, resulting in the deaths of 15,000 people and exposing thousands to its toxic effects. The catastrophe left people's lives in turmoil, with many yet to recover from the trauma.
That night, Shinde woke up hearing a commotion outside and found terrified residents milling around as a white cloud of gas descended.
Feeling nauseous and with his eyes burning, Shinde put his wife, two sons as well as 10 neighbours on his auto-rickshaw to escape from the gas.
"Along the way, people sickened by the gases were on the streets coughing and moaning. Some wailed near their dead relatives. Men who ran to escape the gas, dropped dead because of inhaling poison fast."
"Some stopped me for help, pleading me to accommodate them or their children in the auto. I wanted to help, but I was helpless, my vehicle was packed many times over its capacity," he said.
Shinde struggled to drive on to find an area less affected by the gas, fearing he would lose consciousness. "But I gathered my courage until we reached Kamala Park, which seemed safer as the gases had dissipated by the time we got there."
Shinde's eyesight deteriorated and he suffers frequent backache but he is among the luckier ones, having escaped the gas leak's worst-effects.
Many others lost their entire families and were left helpless, facing 25 years of trauma. Kusum Bai, now 65, learned that her husband and two sons had died when she regained consciousness days after the tragedy.
Hajra Bi, 58, lost sight in her right eye and suffers bouts of breathlessness. She is among the more prominent activists and the problems faced by the victims only make her more determined to fight on their behalf.
"The hospitals and mortuaries then were overflowing with bodies. There are so many damaged people, surviving only on hope and prayers all these years," Hajra said.
Some like 40-year old Rukhsana were dealt a cruel fate, not even knowing what has happened to them. The frail woman, who flails her arms everytime she speaks, suffers from schizophrenia.
Rukhsana was 16 when she developed symptoms of the mental disorder a day after the catastrophe. She has endured electric shocks and taken thousands of pills and injections to control fits.
"She was such a bright and healthy girl before she inhaled the carbide poisons. We were planning to get her married, but now she makes rounds of the hospitals," her mother said.
Among the horrible legacies for Bhopal women is that many men have reservations about marrying them, leaving them stigmatized and impoverished.
Rukhsana's ageing father doesn't earn much. Her brother, a porter, struggles to take care of his family. Her mother worries who will look after Rukhsana once they are gone.
Aske what she remembers about the tragedy, she is quiet for a while. "I had drunk a pitcher full of water," Rukhsana suddenly said and laughs disconcertingly.
