Dipen Mandal (left) and Hiralal Bhattacharjee are being felicitated by Ashmita Foundation. Image credit - Ashmita Foundation

In today’s busy world, saving someone’s life deserves some amount of social acknowledgment within the community where he or she lives, if not by the concerned authorities.

But most of the time such stories remain untold like the case of Dipen Mandal and Hiralal Bhattacharjee, the duo who saved a youth who was drowning on the bank of the Brahmaputra in Guwahati during ‘Mahalaya Pitri Tarpan’ on October 6, 2021.

This isolated city story by Northeast Now caught the attention of Ashmita Foundation, a socially active NGO of Pandu-Maligaon which has been carrying its legacy to stand with the people.

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None but the incident was first reported by Northeast Now (nenow.in) with images, which silently brought the issue of ignorance of people’s safety during a festival gathering in a city like Guwahati on the bank of the Brahmaputra and gradually disappeared as a forgotten fact with time.

As an impact of the story, Ashmita Foundation felicitated both the saviours on Sunday evening.

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As part of their special annual community initiative, the foundation selected the two saviours as the Real Heroes of the community and honoured them.

Ashmita Foundation Guwahati
Dipen Mandal is felicitated by Ashmita Foundation. Image
credit – Asmita Foundation

Remembering the incident story, Debjani Patikar, president of the foundation said, “Saving a drowning man that too on the mighty Brahmaputra is not an easy task. And we are thankful to Northeast Now for bringing the real heroes to the forefront.”

“Otherwise, this incident would have never been recorded. And by felicitating the two saviours, who saved the life of the drowning 30-year-old, Debaditya Purkayastha, we are very much happy as a social NGO of the locality that at least we could stand with them,” Patikar said.

It is to be mentioned that Ashmita Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) of Pandu in Guwahati has been working in the field of children’s health awareness since 2016.

It is a non-profit and non-political organisation that has been mostly engaged in health care awareness activities for the girl child with all possible support.

(Story filed by Subhamoy Bhattacharjee)