Thalamari:
"Her house is somewhere in the lane next to a temple in Thalamari village in Raichur taluk. Try to locate her," said our photo editor, pointing at the photograph of an elderly woman.
The photograph showed the woman in distress in the midst of a collapsed house due to the floods that had ravaged the village in October 2009.
We set out for Thalamari, without even knowing the woman's name and other details. We knew it would not be easy to trace her in a village of 2,000 families.
We first hit the makeshift sheds, located about 1.5 km away from Thalamari. We explained to the residents in the sheds about the woman and described her features to them.We were handicapped as we were not carrying the photograph with us. We sought the help of our photo editor, who promptly mailed us her photograph.
With a full-screen picture on our laptop, we then entered the village. At the entrance, we sought the help of a tea-stall owner. He was not of much help and only remembered the woman's face.
With the panchayat office closed, we decided to walk through the lanes of the village. The laptop with us attracted a lot of youngsters, but each them gave different identities of the woman. Finally, a middle-age villager took us to a bylane extending to the village interior.
Clad in a saree, the woman we were looking for was sitting right in front of a new house. That was the woman we wanted to meet. The clueless woman invited us with a hearty smile. "I am Giriyamma and it's me in the picture," she introduced herself, looking at the laptop. Giriyamma, as we found, was 70 years' old and lived with her grand-daughter. Her only son lived in Bangalore with his wife and three other children.
After a formal exchange of pleasantries, we asked Giriyamma about her journey after the floods. It was tough, as she had to rebuild her life from the scratch, said Giriyamma. "I was in the makeshift shed in Sindhanur located 4 km from here for two months. When I came back, it was a big challenge to build a roof over my head," she said.
She added that the compensation from the state government was not enough to rebuild the house as the cost of materials was high. "With the help of my son, who contributed some additional money, I decided to start the construction. I monitored the construction work and also looked after the agricultural field," she said. Now, Giriyamma is happy about her newly-built home. Self-help, she said, was the best assistance one can get.
She does not want to shift to the new houses constructed by the government. "They are not for farmers. The villagers are complaining about the quality of the construction," she said. Before we bid goodbye to Giriyamma, the only thing the old woman an did not wish was another flood fury.
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