Written by Swati Mishra & Rajat Sain“The 19th is cursed for Assam,” sighs cab driver Sumu on the way from Dibrugarh to Sivasagar. “Zubeen Da (singer Zubeen Garg) left us on the 19th… and then, on the 19th, came this flood that swept everything away.” So, when heavy rains in the Naga Hills broke over the region on July 19, it caught everyone completely off guard. “Over 1,200 cows and calves were swept away in an instant across the village,” Sarma, a resident of Nepalikhuti, in the revenue village Garhmurmiri, tells The Indian Express. A suffocating blanket of mud and debris covers the village, and a heavy stench of decay hangs in the air.