Hilal Ahmad is set to get married today, exactly a year after the Kashmir floods forced the cancellation of his wedding.
September 7, 2014, was a date that was to be etched in Hilal Ahmad's memory in a very different way. He was to be married that day. But the worst floods to hit Kashmir in half a century washed that and much more away. After a year of rebuilding their lives, the 25-year-old's family is preparing to mark the first anniversary of the flood with precisely what it washed away - Hilal's wedding.
During the floods last year, NDTV had reported on how Hilal's wedding had to be cancelled because of the floods, and how his family had suffered afterwards. "We have lost everything. Tomorrow was my wedding day, but everything just got washed away. There is nothing left now," a crestfallen Hilal had said while being interviewed last year.
NDTV found Hilal's family living in a two-room tenement, preparing for the wedding.
Hilal and his family are residents of Srinagar's Chinar Bagh. Many of them broke down while watching a mobile phone clip of the report that NDTV had done on Hilal last year.
Watch last year's NDTV report on Hilal:He is the only earning member of his family, and works as a salesperson in a shawl store. The past year has been tough to say the least for Hilal, who says he has had to work overtime to rebuild his house and save for his wedding. The government did give financial assistance - a paltry sum of Rs. 2200.
"We have never seen such destruction in my whole life, I lost everything, I worked hard and made a wooden house and got my family back here and brought all the belongings", says Hilal Ahmad.
The house in which Hilal Ahmad and his family live in as they rebuild their lives.
One year late, but he is now set to marry the same girl he was to have married on the fateful day last year. And the focus of Hilal's family through the year between then and now has been to rebuild enough to be able to welcome the new bride.
"Our house was destroyed. We had no place to live. I have four daughters and I am a widow," says Hilal's mother, Fazi Banoo. "We could not have gone for the marriage in such difficult circumstances. In the last one year, where would have I kept my daughter in law?" she asks.
But now, a year on and ready to move on, Hilal and his family are looking forward to the low-key wedding.