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DEATHQUAKE;
THE PAIN AND HORROR
SURVIVOR'S
TALE
MADHU
JAIN, Housewife, Bhuj
"I've
been saved by Lord Mahavira"
Madhu
Jain stayed calm. When the quake struck, she had no idea where her husband
and two children were. She called out for them and ran. The 38- year-old
housewife covered a few flights of steps and had almost made it out when
she snagged her sari on a scooter. A slab of concrete fell on her leg,
trapping her. And then there was an unending shower of debris and noise.
But instead of shouting for help, "to save energy" she started chanting
the Navkar mantra of the Jains. She could hear her neighbour Bipin Thakker
through a slab of wall, shouting for help. Gradually, Jain doesn't remember
when, "maybe 60 hours later", his voice dropped and then faded altogether.
Yet, she  chanted.
She conserved her energy and started shouting only when she heard the
noise of bulldozers and cranes. And she panicked thinking that the debris
would now crush her. But suddenly there was a ray of light when the rescuers
removed a slab from over her head. Next, she was pulled out from the top
with a fractured leg, the last of 22 saved from the apartment block's
hold of 122. That was 72 hours later. "Only once during those fateful
hours did I think of committing suicide," she says. "I have been saved
by Lord Mahavira himself. Money has no value for me from now onwards.
My only motto now would be to serve people." The gratitude overflowed
when she heard that her injured engineer-husband was at Pune's military
hospital, rescued and airlifted on the first day. But she's still in shock,
so it hasn't struck her yet that her children aren't around her. And Madhu's
brother-in-law still hasn't had the heart to tell her that Sweety, 12,
and Kittu, 9, are dead.
-Uday
Mahurkar
Pg.
1
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