Mandi resident, who lost five of family to flashflood, has only a stone for company

Four months after the devastating rain disaster that ravaged the Seraj region of Mandi district on June 30, Mukesh Kumar still walks back to the place that once echoed with laughter — his home in Daizy village.

Today, that spot lies silent, marked only by a stone carved with five names — his parents, wife and two young children. It is not a grave, but a memorial to a life washed away.

The flashflood of June 30 changed everything. On that day, torrential rain lashed the hills, turning calm streams into violent torrents. Mukesh was on his way back from Punjab when his wife called him around 8 pm, asking him to stay the night in Thunag. “She was worried about my safety because it was raining heavily,” he recalls softly. That was the last time he heard her voice. Soon after, mobile networks collapsed, cutting off the village from the world.

When Mukesh reached home the next morning, he found only wreckage — and silence. His house had been swallowed by a furious flood, and his entire family had disappeared without a trace. “There was nothing left — no walls, no roof, no faces. Just emptiness,” he says, his eyes clouded with grief.

The days that followed were a blur of disbelief. Rescuers searched for days, but no bodies were found. Now, even as the government will begin the process of declaring the missing as deceased, Mukesh says the finality feels unbearable. “I do not want to accept that they are gone forever,” he whispers.

To preserve their memory, Mukesh carved their names on a stone and placed it where his home once stood — a silent reminder of love, loss and helplessness. “This stone is all I have now. It’s my home, my temple, my family,” he says.

But the tragedy has not ended for him. The Revenue Department recently declared that the land where his house stood falls on government land, making him ineligible for the Rs 7 lakh aid announced for flood victims. “I lost everything — even my right to rebuild,” he says.

As the sun dips behind the Seraj hills, Mukesh lights a small lamp besides the stone. The wind hums through the broken valley — carrying, perhaps, the whispers of those he waits for still.