By now, everyone has seen the iconic pictures of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur submerged in floodwaters. This is the story of how we got those pictures, and what I saw along the way.

Abid Mehmood, our correspondent in the area, described their flow thus: “Auj and Baen enter the Ravi in Shakargarh tehsil before Kartarpur, while Basanter enters the river after Kartarpur. But this time, the force of the floodwater in the Ravi pushed back the water in these drains. This caused more damage.”

Getting to the gurdwara was no easy task. Drenched from the chest down, I held my camera aloft above my head as we hung onto a tractor trolley that was ferrying locals to and from the flooded villages around Kartarpur.

The trolley was filled to the brim, but I managed to find a foothold and hung on for dear life. Along the way, locals trying to escape the waters would call out to me: “Don’t go, you’ll fall,” or “watch yourself” are the most printable of the refrains yelled my way as we trundled towards the gurdwara.

On our way back, the daylight offered some sobering perspective. There was only water all around as far as the eye could see, submerging fields and villages alike.“

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