Cleaner can't get over the sinking feeling

Soumen Ghosh at the hospital. (Chayan Majumdar)

KINSUK BASU AND ALAMGIR HOSSAIN, TT, Jan 30, 2018, Behrampore: Soumen Ghosh can still hear the sound of water gushing through the windshield as the bus crashed through the bridge, its front tyres dangling in the air, and plunged into the lake.

"The sight of the bus slowly tumbling down and the sound of the water rushing through...I can't forget it. I will not work as a cleaner in any bus any more," said the 24-year-old who remains the lone survivor among the three bus staffers. The driver and the conductor are dead.

A resident of Murshidabad's Jalangi, Soumen managed to wriggle out of the sinking bus, swam and spotted a boat. "Most passengers were asleep. None realised the bus was falling into the waters," said the Class VIII dropout.

After being saved, Soumen felt he must flee. "I thought I would be arrested or may be lynched," Soumen told The Telegraph from the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital where he is on tranquillisers.

By his bedside was his mother Rupali Ghosh. "I initially thought he was dead. Rahul, my younger son, told me he was alive," Rupali said.