Destiny has been cruel to 54 year-old Raj Kishore Sah, a marginalised farmer from Nayanagar Navtol village in flood-hit Madhepura. A freak accident fractured his right clavicle and also paralysed him.
As luck would have it, a relief packet weighing approximately 5 kg, airdropped by an IAF chopper from a height of about 20 metres fell on him on August 29 and he lay unconscious. He was initially carted on a bullock-cart, then taken on a two-day boat ride to Malichowk (in Saharsa) and finally put on a choc-a-block bus to reach Saharsa town. From there, he was put on a locomotive to Patna - the entire journey to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) having taken five days.
Admitted to the PMCH on September 2, Sah, the sole bread-earner of the family, is now worried how to eke out a living for his family of seven, including five young children.