By Sanjay Sharma
Bhopal, Dec 2 (IANS) Gazala, living with her parents and a younger sister in Ginnauri neighbourhood - about three kilometres from the killer Union Carbide factory - was 12 years old when lethal gases leaked out on the night of Dec 2-3, 25 years ago.

Within two months, she turned blind.

Her father, Moinuddin, who had a wood cutting business, now works for someone instead as he had to sell off all his machinery to pay for Gazala’s treatment. But her eyesight could not be restored.

Today, at 37, Gazala doesn’t like to meet too many people and prefers to remain alone in her room and think of god.

“I can never forget that night when my mother started waking me up - ‘utho, chalo’ (get up and move). Our neighbours were calling us, so my mother took my younger sister Mushra and me downstairs and joined them,” Gazala told IANS.

“We went to the nearby mosque and stayed there the whole night. There were hundreds of other people also in the mosque - all coughing, some even vomiting,” she recalls.

“Later, my father came and told us that some gas had leaked and we would not be able to return home for a few hours. We, however, returned early next day morning (Dec 3, 1984). But a few hours later, someone came and told us that the gas has leaked again and we had to flee our home again.

“Visibility on the road was poor. I was not able to see anything properly and I fell down. I don’t remember how I came home but that’s when I started getting fits and losing my vision and in two months or so, I was completely blind.”

Her sight was restored twice but only for a short while. Having undergone three operations at the Sankara Netralaya, Chennai, on the advice of Hamidia Hospital doctors, she had been told eight more operations were required for the restoration of eyesight.

But her elder sister Sahala, who is now married, said: “That could not be done due to lack of money. Vision is not the only problem. She also suffers from fatigue, panic attacks and a burning sensation in her eyes. She also has tuberculosis about which she has not been told.

“I don’t relish meeting people and always feel like staying in my room, either listening to songs or remembering Allah,” Sahala told IANS.

Over 3,500 people were killed instantly in the gas leak at the Union Carbide factory that also maimed thousands for life on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984. Gazala is just one such victim.