'Karyavahi chal rahi hai. Intezaar kijiye': First hand account of a female scribe whose house has been burnt down in Delhi
Khushboo Akhtar, Palpal News My brother Nadeem was woken up with incessant rings on his mobile at 6 am on Wednesday, 30 August, by a neighbour from my home in Sultanpuri in northwest Delhi. It was an unusual alarm to ring on a working day. The voice on the other side said that smoke was coming out of the top floor of our three-storey home located on a wide road. I have been living with my brother and father in a Delhi satellite town for the last two years or so, but have not lost touch with the house and neighbourhood that shaped my childhood and university years. By the time my brother and I reached our Sultanpuri house, a huge fire had engulfed and destroyed the entire second floor of my house, neighbours had called the fire brigade office, which doused the fire and left, and the local police had been informed about the incident. What I saw when I entered the floor broke me. The tiny floor was full of ash and half-burnt things. The ash from the wood of the two beds kept there wa