Long Island's Indian community reacts to train tragedy

Friday’s train crash in India that killed over 280 people and injured 900 sparked conversations of support, frustration and sorrow at a local picnic and among those in a WhatsApp Hindi-English group of the local Desi diaspora.

Over vegetarian burgers, chips and the sweet confectionary dessert gulab jamun, picnickers in Queens pondered Saturday how to help the survivors and the families of those who died.

“How can this happen? It shouldn’t happen, and how can we support and donate whatever we can?” said Harish Thakkar of Floral Park, who works in IT and is the immediate past president of the local chapter of Association of Indians in America.

Donations, medicine and supplies are possible sources of help, said Thakkar, who is from Pune, near Mumbai, and has lived in the United States since the late 1990s.

The crash was one of India's deadliest rail crashes in decades. At the scene, in the eastern state of Odisha, there was chaos as rescuers clambered on top of the wreckage to pry open the doors and windows using cutting torches to get inside, free trapped passengers and recover the dead. 

According to a 2021 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are roughly 27,543 Nassau County residents, and 8,829 in Suffolk, who were born in India.

Suman Singh, manager of Jassi’s Fine Indian Cuisine on the Queens-Nassau border, who is from Delhi, said he saw news about the crash and got to thinking about conditions in his homeland — how outdated and broken Indian railroad technology often is, and how corrupt officials in the country can be.

“The Indian government is not good,” said Singh, who has lived in the United States since 2018. He lamented: “Whenever we travel to India, with the train, we are not feeling safe.”

Poonam Jain, 62, was wondering what caused the crash: An early report blamed a signal error. But she wants to know for sure.

“This is a very big tragedy, but accidents happen sometimes,” said Jain, who owns a garment store in Hicksville. Jain, who is originally from New Delhi and has been in the United States since 1988, added: “This is very, very bad. I’m sorry for their families.”

Sam Patel, a worker at Patel Brothers Indian grocery in Hicksville, heard about the crash, but he hasn’t been paying much attention to the news some 7,800 miles away.

“I’m living in America. I know about this,” he said. “I don’t know about that.” 

Prem Bhandari, 61, of Woodbury, who works for a nonprofit provider of artificial limbs, said he has faith that the Indian government will take care of the victims and their families.

He came from the Indian state of Rajasthan 37 years ago and has been on Long Island for 32 of those years.
"Our sympathies are with fellow Indians," he said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.