THANJAVUR: Despair hangs thick in Kalimedu, an agrarian hamlet, four km from
Thanjavur
town. For Renuka Devi, 45, losing her 14-year-old Santosh Yadhavan came as a double blow. She lost her husband, the family's sole breadwinner, only four months ago. Renuka said her husband Raja, 48, a farm hand, fell ill and died in December last year, leaving her with the responsibility of raising their two schoolgoing children. Now with Santosh's death, Renuka hugged her 11-year-old daughter, tears running down her face.
As the procession began around midnight of Wednesday, with
villagers
dragging the
chariot
, Santosh took part in the first round and returned home an hour later. "I begged him not to go again as it was late and I tried to convince him to go to bed," Renuka said, sobbing. Even as she succeeded in convincing Santosh, his friend came home and took him out to pull the chariot.
The boy left home around 2 am, an hour before tragedy struck. She said her son always listened to her. But one act of disobedience proved tragic. Eleven people, including three children, were electrocuted when the top of the chariot hit an overhead high-tension
wire
.
The tragedy that struck Kalimedu in Thanjavur district in the early hours of Wednesday has left 10 families deeply traumatized. Most of the 11 victims were breadwinners, either farm hands or workers under the MGNREGA scheme. The plight of A Poongothai, 54, is heart-rending as she lost two men in her family. While her husband Anbalagan, 60, and elder son Raghavan, 24, died, her younger son Madhavan, 20, survived with injuries. He is undergoing
treatment
at the Thanjavur medical college. Grieving the deaths of her husband and elder son, she waited for Madhavan to be discharged soon.
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