"‘Kajal-da, what else has been happening in the country?” Suranjan asked, in order to get away from Maya as a topic. Kajal Debnath looked up at the ceiling, blew outsome cigarette smoke and said, ‘28,000 houses, 2,700 commercial establishments, and 3,600 temples have been damaged or destroyed and twelve people have died. There has been damage worth two billion takas! Village after village has been destroyed. Forty-three districts have been affected. Two thousand six hundred women have been molested. Among those temples that have been damaged beyond repair is the Gouranga Mahaprabhu temple, more than five hundred years old, in the southern part of Sylhet. An ancient Kalibari, many hundred of years old, was destroyed in Baniachong. Also damaged were Kaibolyadhaam and Tulsidhaam in Chittagong, the Madanmohon gym at Bhola and the Ramakrishna Missions at Sunamgunj and Faridpur respectively.’ Suranjan asked, ‘Hasn't the government offered any help?’ ‘No. Not only has the government not helped, they have not allowed other organizations to help either. However, there are a few private organizations that have offered help. Thousands and thousands of people have been rendered homeless, and are out in the open without food or hardly any clothes. The girls who were raped have either become so traumatized that they cannot even speak or there is no trace of them, Businessmen have lost everything. Despite that they are being squeezed for whatever little they have left. In Barisal, 750 million takas worth of property was destroyed; in Chittagong 200 million, a 100 million in Dhaka, while in Khulna and Rajshahi the damages were worth ten million each. Altogether there has been 1,070 billion takas worth of losses. If commercial establishments are included, a further 220 million takas have gone down the drain. The destruction of mandirs alone has cost us 570 million takas. ’ ‘Oh I can’t bear it anymore, I just can’t.’"