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'We had a lot of air'

Josy Joseph in Ahmedabad

Chamanlal Shah, 80, was just another ordinary middle class man, peacefully living out the last years of his life with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. This year's Republic Day changed all that. His son and daughter-in-law, several neighbours and relatives perished in the killer earthquake that struck Gujarat on January 26.

In the despair that enveloped the state, Shah became one of the few rays of hope. For, almost 48 hours after they were buried in the debris of the Himanshu apartment complex, Shah, his wife and granddaughter, Hirmani, have been rescued. Alive. Everyone else in the complex, including a 20-year-old youngster and his mother, died in the quake. Six others, believed to have been sitting in a car parked on the porch, are also said to have been crushed under the rubble. But there was no independent confirmation of their deaths.

"It was really pleasant to see such an old man survive for 48 hours, without having developed problems. He had only minor injuries," says a doctor at the LG hospital in Ahmedabad. The Shahs, who were discharged after a day of treatment, went home for the funeral of Hirmani's parents.

"It is all God's grace," says Shah, when asked about his miraculous escape, considering they had no food or water."But we had a lot of air," he says. Yet, he cannot recall much more than that about those 48 hours. "They were doing some puja when the quake started. They ran down and were trapped under the staircase when the building collapsed," says one of Shah's relatives.

Shah's neighbours were not so lucky. Sukumaran, a jeweller by profession, lost his wife, Pushpa and son, Kannan, in the debris. At the time of the quake, Sukumaran was at his jewellery shop. Kannan, 20, who was at home, rushed out of the building with his sister as soon as he realised an earthquake had struck. Then, as he ran back inside to get his mother, the building collapsed. On Monday evening, rescue workers were still searching the debris for their bodies.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

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