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DEATHQUAKE;
THE PAIN AND HORROR
SURVIVOR'S
TALE
GUNWANT LAL MEHTA Grocer, Anjar
"Why am I alive?"
Gunwant Lal
Mehta is a rarity in Anjar-he's alive.
As he recovers
in an army field hospital in the devastated town, he slowly recounts an
epic tale of survival. For 76 hours after the quake brutally remodelled
his house, Mehta lay trapped under 10-ft rubble of cement and stone. Nearby
lay his mother and two sons crushed, dead.
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All his escape
routes were cut, but a dust-choked pocket of air kept the 45-year-old
grocer going. To prevent his throat from becoming parched he cupped his
palms and began drinking his own urine. He says he wanted to cry very
badly, but didn't, fearing that the tears would dehydrate him quickly.
When he heard choppers flying overhead Mehta, slipping in and out of consciousness,
called out Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel's name repeatedly, begging
for help. And then around noon on the fourth day his cries were heard
by a group of soldiers from 2 Maratha Light Infantry. When they pulled
him out an hour later on January 29, Mehta was delirious with pain and
sorrow. The first thing he asked the army medical supervisor, Major Max
Roberts, was the classic existentialist question, "Why am I alive?"
Tired, Mehta
closes his eyes. He's badly bruised and his head hurts terribly. And he
has some thinking to do: he has no family, no home, no money. And there's
a life to rebuild.
-Sayantan Chakravarty
Pg
1
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