Chandigarh, September 11
“Robin sat on a tree branch watching everybody, it’s a bliss he thought being this carefree”, the lines of this Class IV poem had always mesmerised nine-year-old Skalzang Angmo, but she could never have understood the bliss better than today.

Walking down the corridors of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Sector 25, she comes across a coy yet firm girl struggling hard to start afresh and be as carefree as possible. Having lost her elder sister Denchen Paldon, a former student of the school, in the devastating August 6 cloudburst in Leh, her tragic story was first highlighted by The Tribune, following which the Union government decided to sponsor Skalzang’s education.

“When I was in Leh, Denchen would always tell me about her school, friends and hostel. I had always dreamt to be a part of this school. The day I was selected in entrance examination, we celebrated and she promised to make me her room-mate… It just took a few hours and everything was shattered. Today, I am in my dreamland but with a lot of pain in my heart,” says Skalzang, trying to hold back her tears.

Quiz her on going back to Leh and she replies: “Never… I will never be able to face the place. It was beautiful and serene but now a deathly silence haunts it. I will stay here, study and become a class topper like Delchen.”

School principal Pawan Sharma said the girl was undergoing trauma. “When she came here last night, her first reaction was that the school looked exactly like her sister had described and then broke down. Her house in charge is staying close to her and if required, we will arrange a counselling session for her.”

Ostracised by her own, a septuagenarian, Nurzin Angmo, is now bearing the brunt of nature’s fury, and that too alone. Living in a tent put up at Solar Valley relief camp, after her house in Shey village was washed away in the August 6 deadly cloudburst, the old woman has been waiting for her daughters, who live nearby, to take her home. But her hopes have not been realised yet.

“At the night of cloudburst, I was not in my house and had gone to Himachal Pradesh. But when I returned, I saw that the entire area had become a ghost town,” said Nurzin. The woman even lost the picture of her husband, who had died about 10 years ago.

“I have four daughters and all are married in nearby villages. They know that I am living here, but still they have not come to meet me,” says the woman.