Dehradun:
Nightmares of the devastation he witnessed still startle 26-year-old Rakesh, who lies listless in a hospital in Dehradun, the capital of flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
His ponies, all five of them, were washed away by the floods in Rambada, 7 kms from Kedarnath, the epi-center of the tragedy.
He says during peak season there are around 10,000 ponies in the Rambada- Gaurikund area.
On June 16, he was having his breakfast when a sudden gush of water and silt washed away his ponies, and everything in sight. Rakesh got stuck in the sludge with a broken leg. He was able to free himself only hours later. Help came a day later.
"My cousin, who was with me, was washed away in front of my eyes. I have lost everything," he says.
Rakesh's leg had to be amputated to save his life.
In a neighbouring ward, Rajkishor Trivedi is nursing a fractured leg. He ran into the Kedarnath temple, seconds before his shop was washed away by the rain.
"It was around 7 in the morning on June 17. It was raining non-stop. I saw the water coming towards us with such force, I ran into the temple. If I had waited a little longer, I don't think I would have survived," Mr Trivedi says.
His savings and investments have been washed away. There is also uncertainty over the yatra, which has been his lifeline for over a decade.
These are heartbreaking stories of survival, where the future already poses a big question mark.
As for a three-year-old girl, who the hospital staff calls 'pari', there is still no word on who are parents are of where they could be. If only her smile could wash away the uncertainties that lie ahead.