Odisha train tragedy: 20 mins of separation & a man’s unending quest to trace brother

They crossed path in S3. While Sameer moved to the general compartments to sell mineral water bottles, his elder brother Nimai looked forward to selling another crate of mineral water bottles in AC coaches, on the other side of the train.

It was the same ill-fated Coromandel that entered the loop line at very high speed crashing into a parked freight train and a passenger train coming from the other direction killing 293 passengers on board. While Sameer was feared dead, Nimai was spared with minor scratches to his body. However, he was left with a much bigger wound to his psyche which he fears will remain with him for life.

Siblings, Sameer and Nimai Mana from Midnapur of West Bengal worked in the pantry car of Coromandel Express. They both sold mineral water and other food items to passengers on the train on a regular basis. But little did they know, that the journey on June 2 would be their last journey together. That 20 minutes of separation after they crossed each other in the train turned out to be much longer than Nimai had expected.

As the general bogey among other coaches suffered extensive damage and almost all passengers in that coach died, Sameer too was presumed dead. And from there, began Nimai’s quest to find his brother, which is continuing till now.

From Bahanaga school where the bodies were kept initially, to all the nearby hospitals where the injured were sent, Nimai enquired every place where he could go, but in vain. He finally zeroed in on AIIMS Bhubaneswar where all the remaining dead bodies were preserved in containers waiting for their family members to claim.

Though it took Nimai some days to come to terms after the mishap, the agony of losing his brother does not seem to subside as he keeps visiting the AIIMS to find his brother.

"I could not identify the bodies from their pictures, so the authorities took his DNA sample to match with the remaining dead bodies. But as he alleged, the authorities are delaying the report.

“I have been coming to the AIIMS frequently to enquire about the DNA report the sample of which was taken on June 5. But every time I come here, the authorities make me go away saying that the report has not arrived yet,” rued Nimai.

"I cannot sleep in the night. The visuals of the accident with blood and mutilated bodies strewn all over the place continues to haunt me. Bodies were in so bad shape, even I cannot identify my brother among them. That is why I was forced to give my DNA sample to match with my brother’s,” he said.

Nimai still laments the fact that he did not ask Sameer to go to the AC coach instead, in which case, he would have been alive.