NEW DELHI, July 7, 2013: F-13, Khanpur Extension. This address in South Delhi was swarming with people till about a month ago but now there is an eerie silence. Twenty-nine of its occupants, who had gone for the Chaar Dham Yatra last month, are 'missing' since the floods struck Uttarakhand. The family members who didn't make that journey are now praying and hoping for their safe return. 

Caught between hope and despair are Ashish Gaur, an 18-year-old boy whose parents and younger sibling are missing, and Anita Sharma Gaur, whose husband and daughter are missing. 

Ashish says he looked all around in the hills and spent days at Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun, asking survivors about his family. "Some of them said they had seen my parents but could not give any more details. I do not know what to do now," he said. Ashish did not go with the family because he had to appear for his BCom first year exams. 

Ashish's uncle, Yogesh Sharma, recalled: "On June 8, my parents, younger brothers, their children and a neighbour - 29 of them all - left for the Chaar Dham Yatra in a bus. They called us on June 14 to inform that they had visited Gangotri and were now headed for Kedarnath. We have not heard from them since. 

Sharma said that for the past 20 days, since the tragedy struck, they have been calling various offices and control rooms and even searching for the 'missing' but without any success. "They may be still be stuck somewhere. They will return," said Megha Sharma, Yogesh's daughter. Kedarnath, where the family members seem to have been stuck when the cloudburst took place, was worst-affected. Hundreds of pilgrims who were present there died or got washed away in the floods and some continue to remain missing. 

The Gusain family in West Karawal Nagar says six of their family members are missing. "My son, his wife and children left for Kedarnath on June 14. They were supposed to return in three days but there is no news of them as yet," said Inder Singh, father of Mahender Singh, one of the missing% pilgrims. 

"We have tried everything possible, their pictures have been circulated in news channels and we have spoken to many government officials but they haven't got back to us with any news," Singh said. 

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 7, 2013