Chief Secretary Jayant Kumar Banthia,who camped in the newly set up 24 X 7 control room through Thursday,Friday and Saturday nights,was pleasantly surprised to find some of his belongings from his gutted office intact. While his desktop computer was nearly vaporised,his Ipad survived in a drawer and,after some minor dehumidification,was returned to him by the IT department on Monday. Other officials in the control room,who were treated to home-cooked lunch by Banthias wife for three days,said their boss also sported a blazer and tie in the humidity his gratitude for the fact that the blazer and three ties survived the fire. I thought I should wear it as a symbolic gesture, said the chief secretary who,like everybody else in Mantralaya,managed without airconditioning on Monday. Much more surprising,said officials,was the survival of a framed photograph of the Siddhivinayak deity,which was kept in a drawer. Officials,who conducted a recce of the area,recovered the picture of the elephant god and hung it on a blackened and burnt wall,and sent a photograph of the scene to Banthia.
