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Tales of grief and providential escape resound at Bombay's building collapse site

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay. Photographs: Jewella C Miranda

On Monday night, Praveen Bhakru waved goodbye to his wife Shubha (40) and daughter Shibohi (18) before leaving for Sahar International Airport to see off his aunt who had come visiting from abroad.

When he returned home, he found that the names of his wife and daughter had been compressed into the statistics of 28 died and 21 injured, when the building he lived in, Govind Towers at Bandra east, in north-western Bombay, had collapsed. Some 15 are still feared trapped inside the debris, and there is little hope of finding survivors from among them.

Praveen, a well-to-do professional from the hotel industry, today stands speechless outside the casualty ward at Bhabha Hospital in Bandra, next to his wife and daughter's bodies. His eyes are red, thanks to all the weeping, and full of tears. He is speechless with grief, and hasn't slept a wink since Monday night.

"I have lost everything in my life," he weeps inconsolably as this correspondent tried to talk to him.

Praveen alone has not collected the bodies of his wife and daughter from the hospital, while the other victims' families have taken away their kith and kin's dead bodies.

"I don't know where I will take their bodies since I don't have a house. I have no place to do their antim sanskar (last rites)."

Meanwhile, grief and fear have struck the residents of Kherwadi, the colony where Govind Towers was located, who have gathered around to oversee the rescue operations which has been going on in full swing since Monday night.

Those who have lost their relatives in the crash are mourning, while the more fortunate ones are busy collecting valuables from the debris.

Some two hundred metres away, at least 50 people have gathered around Rathod Jewellers to commisserate with its proprietor.

"My brother-in-law, Ranjit Footarmal Rathod, had just reached home from his shop when the building collapsed. Had he reached a little later, I am sure he would have survived," says Lalit Parmar.

Ranjit's father, Footarmal Rathod (65) is in shock, and unable to cope with the grief: he had seen his son alive only 30 minutes earlier.

The same is the case with his wife, Sukhilaj Rathod (58), who met her son at the entrance to the building just before it collapsed. Little did she imagine it would be the last time when she would set her sights on him.

"It looks like they have lost their voice and are not talking to anyone after the incident," says Parmar.

Govind Towers has been in dispute ever since it was constructed in 1975.

Initially, the building had only two floors in 1975. J Chawla, its owner, then constructed two more floors in 1980. And finally in 1984, three more floors were built and a huge water tank was erected on top to augment the building's water supply.

While the ground floor was occupied by shops and a gas depot owned by the landlord, another three stories housed residential flats and offices. The upper four floors housed Kings Inn, a guesthouse with 32 rooms out of which 11 were reportedly occupied.

Only recently Chawla held a meeting with the building's residents about repairs. And everybody had reportedly agreed to chip in with the cost of repairs after the monsoon.

"Acche kaam ka phal mila, (we were rewarded for our good work)," says Morarji Ghatil, owner of a chemist shop in the premises.

Ghatil, besides owning the shop, had lived in the building for the last 15 years, along with two brothers and their families and their old mother.

While the entire family escaped with minor injuries, the only person to be seriously injured was Ghatil's son Ashok who suffered a fracture in the leg.

Ghatil had been out on work and found out about the collapse when he returned home. He and his wife, who had gone to the market, could not control their tears of joy when all the members of the family were found alive.

"My wife did not have single drop of water till all the members of family were rescued by the fire brigade and volunteers," he said.

His wife's brother, Jitendra Indulal Mehta, who had come from Ahmedabad on Saturday for 'Raksha Bandhan', too escaped with minor injuries.

When asked about the ill-fated building, Ghatil said, "We had all been served a notice from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation separately. We had not floated a society, so all of us were squabbling over who will pay the repair charges."

Also fortunate was Bhanumati Sanghvi, who had come to see her 80-year-old mother who had suffered a stroke just a fortnight ago.

She was in the bathroom when the building caved in, and had a miraculous escape. She was trapped in the debris till the firemen came for her.

"My mother had another attack after the building crashed. Luckily, her condition is stable now and she is in hospital," says Bhanumati.

Meanwhile, Bombay Mayor Nandu Satam has said a group of experts comprising architects and engineers will study the collapse and pinpoint responsibility in two weeks' time.

The police, too, are on the lookout for the landlord, Chawla, and have alerted all police stations, and domestic and international airports to track him down.

"Chawla has been absconding ever since the collapse," a senior police personnel at the site said.

Additional reportage: UNI

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