DEATHQUAKE; THE PAIN AND HORROR
Hell
On Earth
The death count could go up to 1 lakh with more than double the number injured or homeless. In Kutch many towns are destroyed and some villages wiped off the map.
By Sudeep Chakravarti
The ruins are quiet. All life has ebbed away.
If anybody is alive now in the desolation alleys of Gujarat, buried beneath concrete, mud and human folly, it will be an event to make even the harshest agnostic consider the existence of God. It may help to understand better an equation made in hell, to soften a blow that will be felt for a generation: if destiny is kind, 40,000 dead. If it is not, more than twice that number, and even more bruised, maimed, orphaned, and destitute, a horrifying honour roll in the world's count of the damned.
They,
and others who have been unharmed but not untouched-can there be anyone?-by
one of India's worst earthquakes, will carry images with them till the
day they die. Of three minutes
of liquid earth, crashing buildings and dreams, shattered families, cheating
builders, callous officials, and paralysed government. Of stories of schoolchildren
dead in their hundreds, crushed into rubble while celebrating India on
the morning of January 26. Of there being few to watch rescuers clear
debris in the hope of finding somebody alive in a small town in Kutch
because none are presumed alive anymore. Elsewhere, of sole survivors
of families wishing they were dead, too. Of millionaires turned into paupers
and paupers into the wretched. Of how government lost the will to act
even as 20 countries from around the world-even Pakistan-stood ready to
ship rescuers and aid.
Fortunately, they will also carry images of hope. Of the infant being pulled out from the ruins of a high-rise after 100 hours. Of a child soothed by her mother's kiss, as she nursed an amputated hand. Of stories that spoke of immense bravery and selflessness, as people cremated their own dead and went back to rescuing others. Of beggars and businessmen who donated time, money and a common bond of civil society and sorrow to do what they could. Of the Indian diplomat who urged planes laden with rescue teams and relief material to take off, convinced he would have the permit arranged in time for them to land in Ahmedabad-and he did.
Gujarat
is trying to live again because people who built it with enterprise won't
let it die of despair.