Five Past Midnight in Bhopal - Dominique Lapierre [149]
SHEKIL QURESHI—The Muslim supervisor who was the last to leave the factory on the night of the catastrophe now runs a factory for production of alum used in purifying water. He is suffering from serious respiratory aftereffects. Like Mukund, he too is under indictment to stand trial for his role in the tragedy.
GANGA RAM—The leprosy and gas survivor has his small house-painting business running again. The Bhopal municipal government gave the occupants of Orya Bustee a plot of land less than a mile north of the Kali Grounds. The community settled there and has reconstructed a small, typically Orya village with mud huts decorated with geometric designs. Dalima is still very active, although she complains more and more about the effects of the severe fractures to her legs.
DR. SARKAR—The heroic doctor of the Railway Colony was found at death’s door in the stationmaster’s office. Since then he has suffered from a chronic cough and frequent attacks of suffocation. For years, he was convinced that pockets of gas left behind by the toxic cloud were still poisoning people. He retired in Bhopal, where he lives surrounded by his children.
DR. ASHU SATPATHY—The rose enthusiast and pathologist, who performed the first autopsies on the victims on the night of the tragedy, is now head of the department of forensic medicine at the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal. He still grows roses, which he sends to all the Indian flower shows. Affected by the gases that had impregnated the clothing on the corpses, he now suffers from breathing difficulties. Because he did not live in the area hit by the toxic cloud, he never received any compensation.
V.K. SHERMA—The courageous deputy stationmaster who saved hundreds of passengers by making the Gorakhpur Express leave the Bhopal station, now lives in the suburbs of Bhopal. His injuries have turned him into an almost total invalid. His breathing is so labored that he can scarcely speak. The slightest physical effort causes terrible attacks of suffocation. The government paid him 35,000 rupees, a little over $740.
ARJUN SINGH—The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, who dispensed property deeds to the occupants of the poor neighborhoods bordering on the Union Carbide factory, won the elections in February 1985 and became one of India’s most powerful politicians. Appointed vice president of the Congress party by Rajiv Gandhi, he was made a central government minister several times. He has lost his seat in the New Delhi parliament. He now divides his time between the capital and Bhopal where he has had a sumptuous residence built on the shores of the Upper Lake.
MOHAN LAL VARMA—The operator, accused of sabotage by Union Carbide, was never charged. Today he lives some sixty miles from Bhopal and works for Madhya Pradesh’s industries department.
WARREN WOOMER—The American engineer who supervised the training of the beautiful plant’s Indian engineers at Institute, is now living with his wife Betty in South Charleston. His house overlooks the Kanawha Valley. When Woomer goes out for a walk, he can see the outline of the Institute factory, where the tanks invariably contain several dozen tons of methyl isocyanate. Woomer has just written a history of Union Carbide’s industrial presence at Institute. He has remained a consultant for the factory, which now belongs to the Franco-German chemical company Aventis.
“All That Is Not Given Is Lost”
Solidarity Work that Dominique Lapierre
has Undertaken in Calcutta, Rural Bengal,
Ganges Delta, Madras and Bhopal
Thanks to royalties and my fees as a writer, journalist and lecturer, and thanks to the generosity of my readers and friends who support the organization I founded in 1982, it has been possible to initiate or maintain the following humanitarian work:
1. The assumption of complete and continuing financial responsibility for taking care, at the Udayan-Resurrection home in