A routine holiday turned into a nightmare for two groups from Kolkata who were visiting the Darjeeling-Kalimpong hills when a sudden bout of heavy rain struck on the night of October 5. With power out and mobile networks down, they found themselves in the eye of a storm, praying for it to pass.

Jayanta and Reshmi Bandyopadhyay, their son Rohit, and family friends had boarded the Tista-Torsha Express from Bandel on October 1. They reached Malbazar on October 2 and travelled onward to Kage, a remote village near Dawaipani in Kalimpong, on October 5, the same night the storm hit.

Speaking to The Indian Express , Reshmi said the hills felt like a second home; the family had visited for 18 years but had never seen such torrential rain. “When we arrived there was a small river called Ris

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