Brij is a young boy having his own tea shop by the roadside. He meets a traveler and invites him to his shop and starts telling the incidences that took place in his life. He used to stay in Molthi village with his grandmother, mother, brother and a baby sister. Their village was not far from the epicenter and hence used to experience frequent tremors. One day he happened to go to the village Pauri, to buy his school books.
As it had become late he stayed in his uncle’s house. That night they were experiencing frequent tremors because of which they could not sleep that night. This resulted in numerous landslides and it took four days for the army officers to arrive at . Molthi. Brij and his uncle were the first to arrive after the army officers. They weren’t prepared for what they had seen that day, every single house had been brought down to the ground.
The soldiers began to clear the debris and not until that evening did they find the bodies. His uncle asked him to perform the last rite, that’s when he saw that his baby sister was missing. Hoping to find her, he ran to the place where his house stood once and started clearing the debris and searching for his sister.
One officer, seeing this said that there is no point in searching anymore since they have done their maximum and that there is no hope to find anyone alive. Brij did not pay heed to him and continued his search, but the officer left. He came after ten minutes along with three more officers and started to clear the debris. On clearing the debris, after two hours they realized to be standing in the middle of a hollow and Brij could instantly see the foot of his sister.
The soldier exclaimed, saying the little girl-was alive. He immediately wrapped her and carried her to the nearby makeshift hospital. The next day, when he had gone to thank the army officer, he had already left. He was very disappointed at this and whenever he used to see an army officer or a tired traveler, he remembered the officer who saved his sister’s life and would serve him tea for free as this made him very happy. In the same way, he offers this traveler also with a cup of tea and when his bus arrives wishes him a safe journey.
