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DEATHQUAKE;
THE PAIN AND HORROR
SURVIVOR'S
TALE
SHAUKAT
BANU, Infant, Dhamarka
"I was sure she
had died."
This is a
story Shaukat's mother, Roshan, has to tell; Shaukat is 18 months old,
too young to relate tales.
That morning,
Roshan, a 23-year-old block printer of saris in Dhamarka village near
Bhuj, was home with three relatives and Shaukat; her husband Kasam was
away. When tremors began, they rushed to the street. So far, so good.
Then, houses started collapsing all around. They  managed
to steer clear-without a scratch. Except Shaukat who disappeared under
the debris. A frantic Roshan clawed at it. Villagers tried clearing the
rubble-for three days. "I was convinced Shaukat had died," Roshan
recalls. "How could anyone survive that?"
Shaukat did.
Rescuers finally managed to haul her out, with the fingers of her right
hand crushed. At a makeshift army hospital, Shaukat didn't flinch as doctors,
applying local anaesthetic, snipped away her useless fingers. Later, hand
heavily bandaged, in the lap of her mother, she smiled. Maybe later, she
will say something, tell her mother in baby-talk about what happened in
her private hell. "But I hope she forgets it," says Roshan.
"I hope we all forget."
-Uday
Mahurkar
Pg
1
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