An Eyewitness’ Account of Death, Horror And Misery

``Death is not the enemy of life, but its friend,

for it is the knowledge that our years are limited

which makes them so precious.

It is the truth that time is but lent to us which makes us,

at our best, look upon our years as a trust handed

into our temporary keeping.``

-- Joshua Loth Liebman

These are the times when Man is helpless and then the only tool of making survival have a purpose is to pray. I`m really sorry that this happened.

Aisha F Sarwari

Dear YLH . . . I always knew I would salute you. Your youthful exuberance and loyalties will get a wider panaorama someday soon, and I will be your fan regardless of the truth you follow, as long as it is your truth.

Dear Bilal & others . . . please help by writing to Umang c/o veeresh@chowk.com . . . please also help by motivating people to understand that the borders between our countries are so frail . . . nobody is even talking of how cross-border movement by land and by sea in Kutch has opened up totally and informally in the last few days (good or bad, I don`t know . . .)

Hello Everybody . . . this piece was written by our 19 year old daughter Shauravi, childhood classmate and deep friend of Umang Bhattacharya . . . people are welcome to communicate with Umang through me at veeresh@chowk.com and I will pass the messages on to him surely . . . Umang`s response to a friend from a news wire agency on being asked whether they could speak to anybody in Anjar on phone was `` well I know the phone numbers but they are all dead`` (not the phones, which also true, but the people) . . . people who wish to reproduce this article are welcome to do so and I don`t think chowk would have any objection if you please credit chowk . . . no time for tears, YLH, though I like your spirit (every aspect and extreme range of your spirit) please do placing your views on board but do something . . . for the rest, thank you, the tributes should go to Umang and Shauravi . . . in an aside, Shauravi organised and led the first college group from Delhi on ``the bus`` to Lahore in late 1999 and shall probably be back this summer too . . . Umang is back in Anjar.

Veeresh: On belalf of myself and all chowkwallas, please extend our admiration to Umang and other volunteers. They are real human in a sea of men. I salute them.

Umang`s narration and your writing of it is really moving. Thanks for publishing it here.

Sameer

Dear Veeresh,

I really do not have words to say right now .What i read has made me completely speechless.Thank you for such a vivid description.May God have mercy on the people.I think i would like to publish this article in our local news paper. I live in the Pacific Northwest [Canada ], but thought it appropriate to take your permission first. Do let me know how you feel about me doing this, at your earliest convenience.I was very happy to see that people here in my hometown are helping in every capacity.Today there was a bake sale at my son`s school, to raise money for this earthquake .Mind you , in his school probably there are about a handful of Indians and he is the only pakistani boy.It made me feel very good .The children must realise of this catastrophe,and also made to realise from a very early age that to help human sufferings is beyond race and caste .We can encourage them to do fund raising in school, selling lottery tickets , or something like that . The local merchants are always helpful in donating stuff, or i could always do something to that effect,that is not an issue.I completely agree with Faridinkum in reply to #1, that we must not overlook this lightly.It is easy to forget as soon as it disappears from the ``front pages of newspapers ``.Besides my own checks , i will try and get local fund raising from the neighbourhood community .Charity dinners organised in few of the popular restaurants usually have proved very helpful.What some people do is to advertise that this is a fund raising event.They usually do a buffet at cost price , and leave envelopes on each table , for donations .These kind of events in the past have raised quite a sum , especially when there have been cases in the treatment for little kids , which have been out of scope in canada , but a referral has had to be made to the u.s. , which obviously was an expensive alternative to tratment here in canada , where socialised medicine prevails.The end result was that the little girl got her treatment , and mashallah is well and hearty now .Some of you might have read about her case ``Baby Autunmn ``.It was in the news sometimes last year.

Human lives are so precious .I remember once , while visiting a convalescent home ,a geriatric patient of mine, whom unfortunately i had to gently break the news that she had lost a daughter .[her daughter had been suffering from a terminal illness. ] The patient replied to me ``I have 8 children, now 7 , and none to spare ``! so true !

At this stage as i write i can pray for the souls of those who have departed us , and for the courage who have lost near and dear ones in this event, and a support for the ones who have survived the great catastrophe and have been an eyewitness to this gruelling episode.

Inshallah will do all that i can in my humble capacity .

Regards,

Shirin

I never thought I would weep for Indians.

Yasser

Pehlay Aap? Pakistan Calling!

From The Hindustan Times today:

Quake breaks silence: PM, Musharraf talk
Udayan Namboodiri
(New Delhi, February 2)

PRIME MINISTER Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan’s Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf on Friday held their first ever telephonic conversation marking an end to over 20 months of total absence of high-level contact between the two countries. Musharraf later expressed the hope that this contact would lead to resumption of stalled dialogue between the two countries.

The Gujarat earthquake was the subject of the five-minute conversation. It was General Musharraf who placed the call at 7.10 p.m. He expressed his sympathy at the great loss of life caused by the disaster of January 26.

Vajpayee thanked him for Pakistan`s assistance for the relief effort and said the gesture was ``greatly appreciated by the people of India``. He also assured Musharraf of ``India`s continuing desire to build a good neighbourly relationship with Pakistan``.

The conversation was conducted in a mixture of Hindi and Urdu. Sources in the Prime Minister`s Office said Vajpayee was in ``his usual cheerful mood``.

This was the first contact between Musharraf and Vajpayee after the October 1999 coup in Islamabad. The coup had exacerbated the deep freeze that set in bilateral relationship since the Kargil conflict of May-July 1999.

These two happenings (coup and Kargil) had effectively killed the hopes raised at the beginning of that dramatic year by Vajpayee`s historic bus ride to Lahore.

In the interregnum, India spurned several Pakistani offers of negotiations on the vexed issue of Kashmir made by the Musharraf regime, which toned up its so-called ``diplomatic and moral support`` to the jehadi elements undertaking acts of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India.

New Delhi had linked the revival of high level talks to the stoppage of ``export of cross border terrorism and hostile propaganda``. The SAARC Summit, scheduled to be held in Kathmandu in November that year, was put off indefinitely.

Significantly, it was Vajpayee who sent the Capital into a state of anticipation by announcing that a telephonic conversation would be held during the day. He told reporters at a function to release a weekly Urdu journal: ``I will speak to Musharraf on phone and inform him of the magnitude of the devastation.`` But when pointedly asked whether the opportunity would be used to discuss other issues, he said, ``it is at the time of distress that people come together and share grief.``

He once again linked the possibility of resumption of the stalled bilateral dialogue process after the ``right atmosphere`` had been created. ``Violence, killings and terrorism must stop and the climate must be such that fruitful and meaningful parleys can take place.``

He stressed: ``At this juncture the only subject of our talks will be Gujarat. Musharraf wants to express condolence over the death and devastation.``

The Gujarat earthquake of January 26 led to General Musharraf pledging Pakistani support in the form of relief material. After initial ambiguity, India accepted the offer and two planeloads of tents and blankets were dispatched to Ahmedabad by the Musharraf regime. Vajpayee told reporters that more relief material is expected from Pakistan.

Dear Veeresh:

Your piece has once again touch my human sensibility. Please let us know how we could alleviate the current and future difficulties of the earthquake victims.

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

I would request Sadna & Mohajir Inc. to keep this thread clean. At least show respect to the dead and dying if you are not capable of doing anything else.

Lashkar-e-Toiba is strictly an Indian problem created solely due to the stubborness, lack of compassion, and gross disregard of human rights by the Indian Government of their own people. I wouldn`t blame LeT for their comments. They are like cats; fragile and timid; but when cats are cornered in claustrophobic (metaphorical) rooms they come right at your eyes.

But this is not the time and place. Try to save people, or help those who are saving people or at least pretend to look sad.

veeresh,

Thanks for putting this together for us.. I don`t have words to express my feelings... my heart goes out to all those who have lost so much in Gujrat. I will do whatever i can to help. indeed, we need to be aware that these people need support on a long term basis and we need to think about what can be done to ensure that they are not left on their own once the news of earthquake dissappears from front pages of newspapers.