Refugees on the road, hosts at heart: Flood-hit Upper Assam greets India Today reporters with a pineapple

As the evening sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and gold, 55-year-old Lakhimoni Duara Nath quietly reached into a worn jute bag that held almost everything her family had managed to save.

Inside were a few clothes and a single pineapple.
She held it out to us.

"Take this with you," she said. "You came here for two days to listen to us."
For a moment, the flood faded into the background. A woman who had lost her home, her crops and almost everything she owned was offering one of the few things she had left.

Lakhimoni is among more than 200 people from Sontalichiga, near Gaurisagar in Assam's Sivasagar district, who have been living along the Jorhat-Sivasagar bypass after floodwaters forced them to flee their homes.

Rows of tarpaulin sheets now line the roadside, serving as temporary shelters for families with nowhere else to go. Beside them lie their cows and goats, tethered along the highway because there is nowhere else to keep them.

Residents say the only assistance they have received from the government so far is tarpaulin sheets. Everything else, they say, they have managed on their own.

"We are Assamese people. We will do everything on our own," Lakhimoni said, trying to hold back tears.

"My husband and I are farmers. We cultivate our land and earn our livelihood through agriculture. Everything we earned has been destroyed. Our house is buried under mud. We could only save our lives and come to this bypass road with our cattle and goats."

Around her, children played beside the road while elderly people sat quietly under makeshift shelters. Meals were being cooked over temporary stoves, while families prepared to spend yet another night under the open sky.

Many said they did not know when they would be able to return home. Even if the floodwaters recede, they fear they will return to houses buried beneath mud and cropland that can no longer sustain them.

Throughout the day, residents recounted stories of sudden floodwaters, desperate escapes and uncertain futures. Some spoke of spending entire nights in the open, while others described watching years of hard work disappear within hours.

As we prepared to leave after listening to their stories, Lakhimoni smiled and once again insisted that we take the pineapple.
Upper Assam has long been known for its warmth and hospitality. Even after losing her home, her crops and her livelihood, Lakhimoni did not let go of that tradition.

The pineapple may have been one of the few things she had managed to save, but she chose to offer it to strangers who had come to hear her story.

In a flood that has washed away homes, crops and livelihoods across Upper Assam, that simple gesture spoke of something the waters could not carry away, the resilience, dignity and hospitality of its people.