Nobody goes to the movies any more in Ahmedabad

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Since the earthquake that damaged more than 100 high-rise buildings here, nobody wants to sleep in their luxury apartments. Instead, they are camped in cars, vans, tents.

People who once gave their addresses in expensive housing colonies have now swapped them for more primitive lodgings. “Please look for the tent in A block. I and my family live in the right corner of that tent,” said S. K. Bhan, a former resident of the Goyal Inter city Complex.

Mukesh Shah is also living in a tent. “My flat has no damage, not even a crack, but I don’t feel like living in a multi-storeyed building now. It’s risky,” he says. The Goyal complex has set up a telephone in the tent where relatives and friends can contact residents.

Not surprisingly, prices of bungalows have gone up after the quake. “Living in a high rise had become a craze here, and the multi-storey culture was introduced in posh areas,” said R. L. Darbari, a retired ONGC officer. “Now since nobody wants to go back to those buildings, there are no bungalows available, even for hiring.”

A reporter for the Indian Express here, Jignesh Vasavada, has been spending his nights in his Maruti van, along with his parents. It is parked in a ground opposite their Shabri apartments in Vastrapur, which has been abandoned since the quake. Those who have no vehicles have no choice but to sleep in the open, in the cold.

Before the quake, Ahmedabad was known as a festive city, especially after sunset. Dozens of couples would stroll in Sheth Motilal Hirabai, the Municipal park, known as Law Garden. Tonight, there’s not a soul about.

“I had never seen this place empty at 11 in the night. This tragedy has struck everyone with such surprise that it will take months to recover,” said Girish Hiralal, a youngster who had ventured out alone for a scooter drive to take a break.

All over the city, once-crowded cinemas are closed or nearly empty. “In place of five shows we run just two a day, and hardly anybody turns up,” said Adison A. Borsada, manager of Rupalee cinema.

His cinema, which has a capacity of 1,070 and is located in a prime entertainment spot, had sold just 160 tickets for two shows of a Hindi movie today. “People are scared to stay inside a building for even a few hours at a stretch, everyone prefers to be in the open,” he said.

Kantibhai Patel, the cinema’s general manager, said nine of 34 cinemas in the city are closed, while others have no business at all. “People here love entertainment. They are easy going. But after the earthquake everyone is caught in a struggle for survival. Nobody enjoys life anymore,” he said. “A minute has changed all. Everything seems unsafe now in Ahmedabad.”

In Battayar Gali, Z K Fry Centre, a famous Gujarati non vegetarian restaurant, is open, but there are only a few customers. “We used to have no time even to raise our heads. Customers would wait for hours to get a place to eat. Now the entire place is empty,” says Ghulam Mohideen, who works there.

The nearby Manik Chowk is lit up with electric bulbs and the open-air eateries are invitingly decorated, but there too everyone waits for customers. “I have lost my entire business. But I am happy my house is intact,” said Imtiaz Ahmed, who runs Manik Pizza. “I had six Rajasthani labourers working with me, but all of them fled after the quake. Now I have to do everything myself,” he said.

Imtiaz said even a week after the quake, his children still cry for him to come home at night, worried that he might not be safe.

The fear psychosis has also led to at least two suicides in this once-happy city. A 22-year-old woman doused herself and her three-year-old with kerosene at Bapunagar, and a resident of Meghaninagar, whose house had been damaged, consumed poison and killed himself. The woman is struggling on a hospital bed with more than 80 percent burns.