Air India plane crash leaves behind a city which is trying to pick up the pieces
Amidst scenes of policemen trying to manage traffic, restless onlookers trying to get a peek at the crash site and family members running helter-skelter awaiting DNA test results, a 75-year-old man sits on a pavement near the crash site off the Jhaverchand Meghani road like an oasis of calm.
Ashok bhai Thakor, who rode over 10 km from Ghatlodia on his bike to the accident site, sat in one corner at the pavement chanting verses of the Bhagwad Gita in a high pitch.
' No, I have not lost anyone in the attack and neither do I know them. However, when I heard so many people had died, I felt a stirring to come to this spot and recite the Bhagwad Gita for the souls of the departed,' Thakor told The Indian Express.
' Every time I lose someone I know, I recite certain chapters of the Gita for the salvation departed soul. This time the lost just feel too much and I told my wife I want to go to the spot to recite the Gita for the departed souls,' Thakor added.
Like Thakor, who retired nearly 15 years back as a bank employee, the city is trying to come up with the massive tragedy in several ways.
In one part of the city, at a junction there is a billboard with the words 'hausla rakhna Ahmedabad. Ye shehar aaj utna hi toota hain jitna woh viman (keep your spirit up Ahmedabad. Today the city is as broken as the airplane)
At some distance from the hostel, where police have put up barricades to ensure people do not enter the spot, there are remains of candles, which were lit to pay tribute to the deceased.
There are several water coolers with plastic glasses that have been kept outside for everyone — from the assembled crowd to the policemen managing the traffic to media persons — to get some respite from the scorching heat.
Members of a local NGO are constantly getting water mixed with ORS and glucose along with biscuits to ensure that in the ensuing melee, no one is left thirsty. Even at the shamiana (tent) set up at the hospital for families of the deceased, foot soldiers of several organisations ensure there is constant supply of water and snacks.
Thakor added before leaving, 'I spoke to some people who said such things do happen, but I said it is natural to feel grief as so many people have died. One cannot simply move on.'
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