That cold night 20 years ago in this capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh changed Chiraunji Bai's life forever, just as it did for tens of thousands of others.

Till that intervening night of Dec 2/3, 1984, the city was known for its two manmade lakes, lush green parks and boulevards and the Tajul Masjid - one of the largest mosques of Asia. Since then, it has become synonymous with the worst industrial disaster of the world.

Tonnes of lethal methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide plant killing thousands of people instantaneously.

The ill effects of the gas killed more than 15,000 in the last 20 years, including Chiraunji Bai's husband and two teenaged children. Thousands of others who inhaled the gas on the fateful night continue to suffer from varied crippling ailments.

Chiraunji Bai's husband Maharaj Singh ran a tea stall in the busy Chowk area of Bhopal. The family lived in Dwarka Nagar, an area close to Union Carbide, a pesticide manufacturing plant.

"We had a lavish lifestyle then. We could afford to buy anything. My husband employed as many as five people in the tea stall," says Chiraunji Bai with a tinge of pride.

But one night everything changed.

"That night I thought that one of my neighbours was frying a large quantity of chillies. Our eyes started burning and we began to choke," she recalls.

To let in some fresh air, she opened all the doors and windows, little realising that she and her family would inhale the deadly gas, suspended in the air like a thick fog.

"The moment I opened the door I felt as if I had been hit by a shell."

Chiraunji Bai today lives in a one-room apartment in the dusty Gas Rahat Colony also known as Widow's Colony on the outskirts of this state capital. As the name suggests, the Madhya Pradesh government constructed the colony for those who were widowed due to the tragedy.

"We are living in hell," she says.

"I was a pampered housewife. But after that day, I had to work at construction sites as a labourer to sustain my family because my husband and two children were exposed to the gas," she says.

Chiraunji Bai, whose family now comprises two sons, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren, got a compensation of Rs. 100,000 but that was chickenfeed compared to the money she spent on the treatment of her husband and two children.

The family is still trying to pick up the pieces.

Chiraunji Bai could not send her sons to school because there was no money. But as they grew up they also set up a tea stall.

"We earn at the most Rs. 100 per day from the tea stall. My other source of income is the Rs. 150 per month I get as pension."

Her two sons, now in their mid-twenties, are still suffering the after effects of the exposure to the gas. "Both start panting and vomiting the moment they lift something heavy," says Chiraunji Bai.

The story of deprivation and desperation is repeated all over.

Despite all odds, Chiraunji Bai supports Parvati Bai, another gas victim in her seventies who lost her husband that night itself.

"My husband was a labourer. He was working at a construction site when the gas leaked. He died on the spot," she says.

Parvati Bai also got a house in Widow's Colony but had to sell it to support herself. Though others help out with food, clothes and shelter, she still has to beg to survive.

The victims might get compensation of Rs. 100,000 on the directions of the Supreme Court but what they want is a full and final settlement.

"I have come across a couple of cases of gas victims begging. There may be more such cases," says Abdul Jabbar, who heads the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan, a group that works with women who were hit by the world's worst industrial disaster.

--Indo-Asian News Service