Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: A flood is the best leveller, goes the adage, and so do the people of Chantak Bogdaigaon in Upper Assam. A Muslim woman was struggling with all-out efforts to save herself from the turbulent current of flash floods on July 19. Ratul Saora, a man from the Tea Tribe, saved the Muslim woman but lost his life in the process. The village has a minuscule tea-tribe population. Cutting across caste and religious lines, the mainstream Assamese people of the village today performed the Doha (the ritual of the 10th day) for the eternal peace of the soul of Ratul Saora.
Ratul Saora leaves his wife, Joymee Saora, a son and a daughter. A misty-eyed and dumbfounded Joymee retold the fateful incident in which her husband lost his life. "We reside at Chantak Bogdaigaon on the bank of the Dikhow River. The water level of the Dikhow River surged all of a sudden on July 19. I, along with my husband and the two children, went to the road. We saw a Muslim woman with a kid struggling to cross the turbulent floodwater. I asked my husband to extend a helping hand to the woman. My husband went near the woman, but the water level surged neck-deep all of a sudden. He cried for help, but the water current swept him away. We were only mute spectators to the last few moments of my husband. Nobody dared to rescue him in that turbulent water. The woman survived, but my husband perished. His body came out after three days. An indolent fire that keeps me burning within is that we could not afire his pyre as the village was totally under water. We buried his body. I'm helpless with two kids now."
According to a local man, the woman, whom Ratul Saora tried to rescue, is Rahena Ara Ahmed. Since the village has very few Tea Tribe people, the villagers together performed Saora's Doha. The villager said, "As we know, our village experienced floods in 1950, and this year's tsunami-type flood."
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