Hours before the US-led coalition forces' attack on Baghdad began, a surreal calm had descended over Kuwait city. A severe dust storm had forced people to put on protective surgical masks on their faces as fine silica dust invaded nostrils, blinded eyes and reduced visibility to a few metres. It lulled its 2.3 million residents into believing that an American strike could be delayed. But it didn't deter hundreds of expatriate Indians from congregating at a basement in Abbasiya, a suburb in the city, to listen to experts talk of precautions to take in the event of a chemical and biological attack by Saddam Hussein's forces.

FIRE IN THE SKY: The firtst Tomahawk missile to be fired at Iraq is launched (left) and explosions light up the Baghdad skyline

For many of the Indians, the trauma they experienced when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 is still fresh in their minds. Joy Kuriakose, a secretary in a multinational firm who attended the meeting, recalled how he couldn't find medical help for his ailing wife for weeks. Now he listened intently to cardiologist C.G. Suresh, a consultant in a city hospital who had been enlisted by the Indian Embassy to brief the expat community on the precautions to take in the anticipation of war.

Suresh advised everyone to keep ready one room in their houses that could be sealed off completely in the event of an attack. The room had to be equipped with several crates of bottled water, a week's stock of food, a transistor radio to listen to the news, plenty of candles and torches. He also wanted everyone to buy a tray of charcoal cubes. Reason: Charcoal is a good absorbent of any poisonous chemical gases that might creep in.

Such warnings didn't come a day too soon. For early next morning after the US strike began, Saddam retaliated by firing six greenish-grey Scud missiles with Iraqi flags painted on them at the 3,00,000-strong coalition forces stationed on the outskirts of Kuwait. Four were intercepted and destroyed in the air by the much-improved Patriot anti-missile units that line the border. Two got through but exploded harmlessly on the desert sands. But within minutes air-raid sirens rent the air across the city sending people scurrying into the basements of buildings or towards their houses to take shelter in the safe room that Suresh and other experts had warned them to keep ready.

Hearing the persistent wail of the siren, Marian Fernandes, an Indian expatriate from Goa working as an executive assistant in a department store in downtown Kuwait, decided to drop all work and leave. Her concern was the safety of her 11-year-old son Kevin, who she had sent that morning to a friend's house. She picked him up and headed for her home in Salmiya, a suburb in the city. Only the previous evening she had purchased gas masks for 30 Kuwaiti dinars each (around $100) and put them under her car seat.

WAITING: Expats in Kuwait plead with airline staff for tickets home

In the past week, buying gas masks had become a status symbol-those buying the German-made ones would look down upon the made-in-Egypt masks. At home, Fernandes sat down with Kevin and spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to use the masks. She told her husband, a banker, to get home quickly and pick up enough bread and food on the way. Already there was a shortage of khobs, the favourite bread of Kuwaitis, and huge queues could be seen in front of stores as people lined up to stock up. Says Fernandes: "We are alarmed because with Saddam you never know what might happen next. I have friends calling me from all over India asking if I am all right."

In downtown Kuwait, Tony Jashanmal, managing director of Jashanmal and Partners Limited that runs one of the largest chain of departmental stores in the Gulf, initially showed no signs of concern on the day the strikes began. But as the sirens kept going off almost every hour, he decided to declare a holiday for his stores. Jashanmal recalled that in 1990 he was playing golf when he heard the sound of artillery fire. He went on to play another three holes before having a hearty breakfast. It was only on reaching home that he learnt that Saddam had invaded Kuwait and that a full-fledged war was on. This time round, the suave Jashanmal says: "We have lived through worse things so we were not so worried. But our main concern is that it shouldn't drag on as it would cause enormous disruption."

That is a major worry for India too. For a prolonged, messy battle that spills over to other Gulf countries will threaten the job security of the 3.5 million Indian expatriates living in the region. Kuwait has close to 3,70,000 Indians and they form the backbone of its service industry.

"We are alarmed. With Saddam one doesn't know." [Marian Fernandes, an Indian expatriate from Goa]

In recent years, professionals and businessmen have come to the city in increasing numbers and have prospered. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Indian expatriates in the Gulf with 1.5 million followed by the UAE with 9,00,000 (see graphic). Most of them are blue-collared workers and together their annual remittance is $6 billion or close to half the amount plied in by NRIs from all over the world. Apart from disruptions of its largest source of foreign exchange, India's annual trade of $4 billion with the region could be in trouble.

On the flip side, if the war ends quickly, India could benefit by vying for a share of the post-war reconstruction projects that could result in a huge boom for the region. India also retains interests in two oilfields in Tuba, Iraq, and the expectation is that these two projects will go onstream as reconstruction gets under way.

For now, the Indian Government doesn't seem to be particularly worried about the expatriate Indians in the Gulf because the general belief in Delhi is that the war won't drag on for too long. However, mea officials also gave the assurance that the Government was fully prepared to carry out large-scale evacuations if it came to that.

HOME AT LAST: This scene of an Indian family arriving at Mumbai's Sahar International Airport is being played out many times over every day

That is a cause for major concern for if the attacks on Kuwait increase in intensity there would be a huge exodus of Indians from the city. Already, all the 81 flights out of Kuwait to India every week are booked to capacity. Both Air-India and Indian Airlines in the past three days have commissioned three additional flights each to meet with the growing rush of Indians wanting to go to safer climes.

One reason that has restrained many of them from heading home is the ongoing CBSE examinations in the scores of Indian schools that have sprouted in the city. Also, many Indians are employed in essential services such as health and transport and the Kuwaiti Government has refused to grant them leave. Shakeel Ahmed, a bus driver with the Kuwait Transport Service, says he would have liked to go back to Thiruvananthapuram with his family but the authorities have his visa papers and he is forced to stay on.

"Evacuation of Indians would be a herculean task." [Swashpawan Singh, India's ambassador to Kuwait]

Or the Indian Embassy in Kuwait a massive exodus would be a nightmare to handle. In 1990, Indian officials were caught off-guard and the initial reaction was quite sluggish. Finally, a record number of 280 flights were flown to pull out stranded Indians. This time, Swashpawan Singh, India's ambassador to Kuwait, has used the months of warning to put in place comprehensive plans to not only protect Indians but also evacuate them if the need arises.

Meetings have been held with Air-India and Indian Airlines to work out the required number of flights. Immigration departments in surrounding countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar have been contacted to allow the passage of Indians in the event of an emergency. Says Singh: "While we have the wherewithal in place it would be a herculean task to put it into practice. It would still take days, if not weeks, to get everyone out if there was a large-scale evacuation."

Singh has spent the past month reassuring Indians that there was no need to panic. Apart from setting up 24-hour help lines, Singh has held a series of meetings with the Indian community associations and has got on board an army of volunteers to manage an impending crisis.

The city has been divided into several zones and in each area civil defence centres with shelters have been identified, apart from hospitals to treat them. Meetings to brief people on the dangers have been held in areas that have large concentrations of Indians and mock drills have been carried out. After the attacks began, Singh said: "We are keeping our fingers firmly crossed that no harm would come to the city." So is the rest of India.