As Kolkata glows with Durga Puja lights and decorations, families of the 19 people killed in Saturday's stampede at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal are confronting a festival transformed into a lifetime of grief. Outside Calcutta National Medical College, bereaved relatives waited on Sunday to take home the bodies of loved ones who had stepped out for an evening of celebrations but never returned.
Some sat in silence, struggling to comprehend their loss, while others broke down, recalling the final conversations and plans they had made with their family members.
For these families, the festival that once brought them together will now serve as a painful reminder of the tragedy.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ด๐ต๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐
"I have nothing left. There will never be a Durga Puja in our lives again," cried Vinod Haldar, a rickshaw puller from New Town in eastern Kolkata, who lost his 17-year-old daughter Barnali in the stampede.
A Class 11 student, Barnali had gone pandal-hopping with friends on Saturday evening. Her father said the group had initially planned to visit pandals in neighbouring Salt Lake but later changed their destination to central and north Kolkata.
Around 8 pm, Haldar received a call from one of his daughter's friends informing him about the stampede. He rushed to the hospital, only to discover that Barnali had died.
Since then, he has been waiting outside the hospital morgue to complete the formalities and take her body home.
Barnali's close friend, 17-year-old Tania Biswas, was also among those killed.
According to a family member, Tania's mother was usually reluctant to allow her daughter to go out without family members but had made an exception that evening.
Tania had reportedly told her family that she would visit pandals in Salt Lake. They were unaware that she had travelled to Chorbagan.
Another bereaved father, Sudama Raut, was waiting to receive the body of his daughter Akriti Kumari, a Class 10 student.
"Akriti had gone out with friends and relatives. I received the news of her death around 8 pm," said Raut, a native of Bihar who has lived in Kolkata for two decades.
๐ฆ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ'๐ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐บ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐
For Saurav Mondal of Kumartuli, Saptami night was supposed to be an occasion to visit pandals and enjoy festive food with his mother.
Instead, he found himself outside the hospital morgue, waiting to take her body home.
Recounting the tragedy, Mondal said the situation deteriorated when rain prompted people to rush out of the pandal. Several visitors stumbled and fell as the crowd surged, with others collapsing on top of them.
"When rescuers finally pulled my mother out, it was all over. She had died. I could not save her," he said.
Mondal alleged that neither police personnel nor volunteers were stationed at the exit to regulate the crowd.
While acknowledging that rain contributed to the chaos, he claimed that timely intervention could have prevented the loss of lives.
Several eyewitnesses also alleged that announcements regarding entry, exit and crowd movement were inadequate, leaving visitors confused as pressure mounted inside the pandal.
Local residents claimed police deployment was insufficient and that several personnel had been stationed near the VIP entrance instead of areas experiencing heavy crowd movement.
These allegations have raised questions about the arrangements for managing the large number of visitors at the pandal.
๐๐ผ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ด๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ
The tragedy also claimed the life of 19-year-old Priya Samaddar, a college student from Uttar Jogendranagar in North 24 Parganas district.
Priya had travelled to Kolkata with friends to visit Durga Puja pandals. On Sunday, her cousin was at the hospital morgue to complete the formalities for receiving her body.
Elsewhere, Mihirbaran Jana struggled to hold back tears while recalling his colleague Dilip Ghosh, who died in the stampede along with his wife, Dipali Ghosh.
Jana had accompanied the couple's son to the hospital.
"It was a routine conversation. I cannot imagine that I will never see him at work again," he said, recalling his last interaction with Dilip just a day before the tragedy.
The deaths have left families, friends and colleagues struggling to reconcile the ordinary moments of Friday with the devastation that followed on Saturday evening.
๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐, ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐
For Ram Biswas of Chakdaha in Nadia district, the memories of Saturday evening remain particularly harrowing.
He had travelled to Kolkata with his wife, Arati Sarkar Biswas, to enjoy the Durga Puja celebrations. Both were caught in the stampede, but only he survived.
According to Biswas, the situation worsened when it began raining and ropes used to regulate the crowd were removed.
Visitors surged into the darkened pandal, triggering a crush as people pushed and shoved. Biswas and his wife fell to the ground amid the chaos.
He somehow managed to get back on his feet and tried desperately to pull his wife up.
"I somehow managed to get up and tried to pull my wife up by her hand, but I couldn't. My wife died right before my eyes. I could do nothing," he said.
His account echoed those of other survivors who described confusion, crowd pressure and inadequate arrangements for managing the sudden rush of visitors.
As the city continued its Durga Puja celebrations, the families gathered outside the hospital faced a very different reality. Their immediate concern was completing the formalities to bring their loved ones home, while questions remained over how an evening of festivities had ended in the deaths of 19 people.