Crushed families: Story of the survivors of the Mumbai building collapse

CHILD’S OPTIMISM

Rescued: Naresh and Anuja Sawant,

and their son Megh,8

Lost: Daughter Tejal,15

Cooped up for 16 hours in one corner of an 180-sq foot room,debris falling around in heaps,they lost their daughter but not hope,thanks to their eight-year-old son who kept encouraging them. “The darkness was frightening and we were gasping for breath,but Megh gave me hope,” says Naresh Sawant,who survived with his wife Anuja and Megh. “The three of us ran to shelter in the corner but my daughter Tejal could not as a slab fell on her.” Tejal was 15.

Megh kept talking to his parents. “I knew I should not start crying as I am a very strong boy,” he says. “I knew we would be pulled out and we should not lose hope.”

“All we had was one another,” says Naresh. “I kept calling everyone to check if they were all right but my daughter did not respond. I knew she had not made it.”

Megh knew too but did not cry and kept up the chatter,says his uncle Ravi who is looking after him while his parents are admitted to hospital. “Towards the end of the day,we were fearing a slab would collapse on us anytime,but then we heard digging and realised a rescue team was here. We shouted to them,” says Naresh. Ravi says,“When he was rescued,Megh saluted the fire brigade and disaster relief personnel.”

Naresh,who works in a private firm,lived with his family at the BMC staff quarters. All his colleagues died. Naresh,his wife and son were pulled out around 10 pm.

Anuja,who has uttered barely a word since losing her daughter,is undergoing treatment for multiple abrasions over both arms and legs,while Naresh has fractures in the right hand and under the right eyebrow. Megh is in Class III at a Marathi-medium school in the neighbourhood.

WAITING FOR MOTHER

Rescued: Prachiti,9,and father Ajay Chendavankar

Lost: Mother Jyoti,brother Pranjul,8

Prachiti Chendavankar,9,sits on a hospital bed,with Megh for company,and plays a video game on a cellphone. It is a way of passing time as she waits for her mother and brother,who she believes are admitted to another hospital while her father recovers in hers. Minutes after she had been rescued,the bodies of her mother,Jyoti,and brother Pranjul,8,had been pulled out of the rubble. “We tried explaining her mother is no more with us. She seems to have either forgotten or failed to understand,” says Rupali,a relative taking care of her until her father is discharged.

Pieces falling off a slab on the ceiling had woken Prachiti,who rushed to a corner of their third-floor apartment. She is animated describing it. “We got scared and fell down on the floor. I had debris all over me but I quickly got up and sat in the corner along with my brother and mother,” she says. “We could hear loud sounds of things falling,people shouting from all corners,but it was very dark and I could not make out who was where.”

A class IV student at Rosary High in Dockyard Road,she is worried about missing school. “I hope my mother and brother get well soon and then we can go back home.” She has been treated for injuries and is likely to be discharged in a week,JJ Hospital sources say.

COULDN’T HELP FATHER

Rescued: Sanjay Rathore,24

Lost: Parents and sister Heena,19

He could hear his father — “Sanju,I am trapped here” — but could not move because of a severe pain in his chest. Sanjay Rathore,24,an engineer,was the only one in the family rescued alive. He lost his parents —Ramesh and Neelam,45 and 40 —and his sister Heena,22,who had completed her studies and was due to get married after Diwali.

Sanjay could barely speak when rescued,says Jay Iyer,a cousin. “Yet he gestured and mumbled to the firemen to rescue his family.”

Ramesh was a peon at the BMC’s Matunga office and the family had moved in around a year ago. Sanjay sustained injuries in the chest and abdomen,but has taken a discharge from the hospital for two days to complete his family’s last rites. JJ Hospital allows patients leave in such circumstances,says medical superintendent Dr H H Jadhav.

FAN AND LIGHT

Rescued: Bhagyashree,8 (pictured),

parents Mahadev and Kavita Kamble

The family,along with a neighbour,was stuck in the space between a fallen slab and a wooden cot along with another neighbour. All survived six hours in the suffocating space. Their concern was for their daughter Bhagyashree,8. They fanned her with a music CD,for want of anything else in hand. “The CD was the only object we found. We fanned our daughter with it,” says Mahadev Kamble,who sustained an injury in the back and right shoulder.

The CD was of Sai Baba. “Once out of the hospital,I will first visit the Sai Baba temple and thank him for saving me and my family,” says Mahadev,42,who works in the BMC’s markets department,and who was rescued with his wife,Kavita,40,Bhagyashree,3,and neighbour Ganesh Gurav.

Gurav’s cellphone too came in handy,though no signals could reach it. “The torch was still working and we could identify a little hole,through which we kept shouting for help,” says Kavita.

“My daughter is strong,like me,and I did not not give up hope although I was worried,” says Kavita,who suffered abdominal injuries,while her daughter was hurt around the hips.

‘WHY DO I LIVE ALONE?’

Rescued: Jayaben Chavda. 45

Lost: Husband and all 3 children

Jayaben Shamji Chavda,45,has lost all faith. “There is no God,” she says,having lost her husband,Shamji Kalida,46,and all their children —Anil,28,Manisha,23,and Tejal,19.

“I don’t know why I was left alone to live,” says Jayaben,who was rescued 12 hours after the collapse. “I have 10 brothers who will take care of me,but what is the point?”

“Anil would go out and work as a DJ during the Ganpati festival,” says Jayaben’s mother. “He would often come home after 5 am. Had the festival been on,at least one of my daughter’s children would have been alive.”

Tejal was scheduled to appear for exams at Sydenham College.

The family lived on the first floor. They were asleep when the building collapsed. Jayaben could breathe through her mouth though she drifted into unconsciousness several times. “I felt a big jerk and woke up. Everything was dark,” she says. “I kept calling out to my family. Some of them initially responded but that later stopped,” says Jayaben,who sustained an injury on the right shoulder.

FIRST OUT

Rescued: Brothers Deepesh and

Anish,16 and 10

Lost: Their parents

Anish Kadam,10,was the first to be rescued from the building,followed by his elder brother Deepesh,16. Neither knows his parents are dead. When they were rescued,Anish even managed to indicate to a neighbour,Tushar Pawar,where the latter’s family was stuck.

Deepesh,who has a fracture,lies on the hospital bed,smiling quietly. His mother Madhavi,45,had been rescued alive,barely breathing,and died in the ambulance in the absence of an oxygen mask,says Priyanka Kadam,niece of Madhavi’s husband Mahadev Kadam. Mahadev’s body was found late on Friday night.

“Both boys have suffered trauma and we cannot tell them the news,” says Priyanka.

FATHER’S HELPNESSNESS

Rescued: Ashok Solanki and

daughter Meenal,7 (pictured)

Lost: Wife Daya and daughter Avani,3

Ashok Solanki recalls how helpless he felt as his three-year-old daughter lay inches from him,the life slipping out of her. “I could not do anything. She was stuck under a slab. I could hear her sobbing for the next few hours and then she fell silent,” says Ashok,34.

“Avani died in three or four hours,” he says. “Daya,her mother,must have died instantly; I never heard her voice.”

Daya and Avani died on one side under the slab,while Ashok and his elder daughter,Meenal,were stuck on the other side for 10 hours before they were pulled out. Meenal has scarcely spoken since,says her grandmother. “The huge slab had fallen on her legs and she lay still for hours,fighting an urge to pass urine,” she says. A fasciotomy has been conducted.

ALL HER FAMILY GONE

Rescued: Simran Kamble,18

Lost: Parents and sister Shraddha,15

Simran Kamble,18,drifts in and out of consciousness,still unaware she has lost her parents and only sister. By her side are half a dozen friends from Siddharth College,Fort.

“No one has told her yet. She is stable but in trauma,” says one college mate. She has injured both legs in the collapse that killed her younger sister Shraddha,15,and parents Siddharth and Smita,48 and 42. She remembers little. “I don’t know what exactly happened. When I opened my eyes,I was in the hospital,” she says. Doctors say this is just trauma; she has sustained no head injury. Her relatives say they will wait before they break the news.