Balli Qutubpur: 'Preeti, Class 4, Roll No. 27' read a school notebook that lay torn and crushed in a heap of soaking bags, books and copies at the site of tragic bus accident in Sonepat in Haryana on Tuesday.
Six schoolkids were killed when the bus they were travelling in turned turtle and fell into a canal.
All the six children, who died in the accident, belonged to the village of Balli Qutubpur.
The village is now in mourning. For those who survived, the incident was a nightmare. But that didn't stop a Class 11 girl from saving the lives of her friends.
"They were all in bad shape and were shouting out for help. Some of them managed to get out of the windows and from the back of the bus, including me. I threw my dupatta to help them," says Babita, who helped rescue the children.
The bus was on its way to the school when the tragedy occurred. Eyewitnesses say a bullock cart came on to the road all of a sudden.
The driver had to swerve to avoid hitting it and lost control of the bus, which then fell into the Delhi canal.
Local authorities managed to rescue 23 children with the help of some villagers. But luck ran out for six kids. The youngest victim was a nursery student, no more than five-years-old.
Two of the six children died - five-year-old Ankush and 11-year-old Priyanka - belonged to one family.
When their mother Suman bade them goodbye in the morning, she never knew that this would be her final farewell to them.
Some of the children who were injured in the accident are still in hospital. But others are home safely even though the trauma continues to haunt them.
"My child used to speak a lot, but now she doesn't talk much," Neeta Devi, mother of a rescued child, said.
Meanwhile, the state government has ordered a probe into the incident and announced Rs 2 lakh to each of the families that lost a child.
This Haryana village sends its kids to distant schools so that they can get better education. After Tuesday.s incident, the villagers are now beginning to wonder whether it's really worth it.
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