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EYECATHERS:
DEATHQUAKE; UNKNOWN HEROES
Courage
In Twos
 When
they first heard news of the quake, Mumbai dog trainers Junaid Merchant
and Shirin Dhabar bundled their two sniffer dogs into their van and sped
to Bhuj. It was a trip they would long remember. Braving debris and death,
the newly betrothed couple forged ahead into the rubble with the dogs,
pulling out bodies, helping wailing survivors identify their dead. But
what got them there? Says an emotional Dhabar: "If we could save
even one life, our trip would be worth the trouble."
Beasts
And Friends
 An
hour before the quake, the dogs had howled incessantly. Rekhaben Vinodbhai
Bhatt should have known. But as the tremors began, and she was heading
for the stairway, which
her husband and sons had just taken to rush downstairs, the dogs Terry
and Nancy tugged at her sari, almost telling her to stop. They would have
known. In front of her, the stairway she was just about to take came crashing
down. Says a teary-eyed Bhatt: "They saved my life." The dogs
are family now.
The
Saviour Survivor
 He
survived. so he saved the others. Rupang Parikh, an Ahmedabad-based chemistry
lecturer, tore out in his nightclothes minutes after the quake to save
the lives of the people trapped in a crumbling apartment building near
his own in the city's Azad Society. Parikh laboured for hours, calling
for help, hammering at the rubble, entering dark pits, hauling out victims
without a moment's trepidation. Parikh, who saved seven people, calls
it "humanity".
Blood
Brother
 Polio-stricken
and handicapped, 26-year-old Amit Malkani, a small-time shopkeeper based
in Ahmedabad, felt left out of all the relief operations taking place
around him. Desperately wanting to lend a hand, he rushed to the V.S.Hospital
blood bank in Ahmedabad on his tricycle, only to be told by the hospital
staff that they did not need any more donors. But Malkani was not willing
to take 'no' for an answer. He pleaded hopelessly with the staff: "This
is my opportunity to serve. Take my blood. It is not handicapped."
The doctors couldn't refuse.
Compiled
by Methil Renuka
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