Author: Sudeep Chakravarti
Publication: India Today
Date: February 26, 2001
Hope and renewal. If these didn't
follow devastation, death would be replaced by despair-and that can be
just as deadly. Almost four weeks after the earthquake, Gujarat is still
coming to terms with what was and what is. But true grit has emerged from
the rubble of past lives and shattered presents, as people who thought
they had lost heart and those who discovered they had found one in the
right place-even those who have no stake in Gujarat beyond the humane-have
come together for solace and succour. More importantly, in tens of thousands
all across the state, they are engaged in rebuilding futures.
It's an awesome task. In the towns
and villages that dot Kutch and much of Saurashtra, even Ahmedabad, the
metropolis of nouveau-India pride now shaken to its foundation, the still
rising deathcount is a tragic statistic. But more daunting is that of destroyed
homes and savings. In scores of places bypassed by aid and media, drawn
by the mind-numbing magnitude of horror at Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau, the
only thing that remains upright is the head-determined, defiant even-in
face of calamity and official apathy. Vondh, Ratnal, Rann Tikar, Moti Barar,
Manfara, Luta Vadar, Chobari, Adhoi ... the places that have experienced
destruction can fill this page.
It will be more than a year, in
some cases, a lifetime, before lives are rebuilt. But it's undeniable.
Across the deathzones stories typify this mood and shape profiles of courage,
determination and selflessness. Almost without exception, they are examples
of why it didn't get worse, and provide irrefutable evidence that there
is hope in hell.
