As Cyclone Amphan ravaged through West Bengal on 20 May, the districts most affected were North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas in southern Bengal. As windspeeds crossed over 120 kmph, houses in these districts were destroyed, mud embankments and dams broken, and countless lives lost. The Quint visited the Atpukur village a village of fisherfolk like most villages in the Minakhan Assembly constituency of the North 24 Parganas district. What we saw was a picture of death, devastation and helplessness. A three-year-old waits for his father A crowd of people stand outside Kalpana Mondol’s small, thatched hut as The Quint’s team approaches it. A side of the hut has been battered. Outside, Kalpana stands with her three-year-old son in her arms. On seeing us, Kalpana breaks down. Her husband, Gobindo Mondol, died on 20 May after a piece of asbestos slit through his neck during the cyclone. Gobindo, like most men in the village, was a fisherman who used to work as a daily wage labourer in Kolkata during the off-season. He’d returned to the village right after the lockdown as jobs became scarce in the city. Three days before the cyclone, on Sunday, 17 May, Gobindo had sent Kalpana to her parent’s house. Kalpana was to return on the day of the cyclone, but her parents stopped her. She returned the day after, to Gobindo’s bloodied, lifeless body, lying outside her house. “This would not have happened has I been here,” cries Kalpana. Meanwhile, her son, oblivious to the mourning, laughs and play around as Kalpana talks to us. He’s yet to realise what happened. He keeps saying that father has gone to the river to take a bath and will come back. If I cry, he hugs me and says that I have nothing to worry about. He keeps saying that he wants to take the boat out with his father, says Kalpana. Unsure of what the future holds, Kalpana now just wants a job. “I have my son to raise. How will I feed him?” she asks us. Video is available at: https://youtu.be/hzQUq5EE_2Q