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'My students died crying for help'

Vikram Vakil in Anjaar

0630 hours on January 26

Bhanuben Thakar, a teacher at Municipal School No 2 of Anjaar, got up and started preparing breakfast for her children and husband.

She is not up so early everyday. But on Republic Day, she had to rush for school to attend a function.

"I am going and will be back by afternoon," she told her husband and left.

"I reached school at 0745 hours and spoke to the principal and other colleagues about the Republic Day function. We then recited the national anthem and took about 400 children for a walk around Mochibazar at around 0845 hours. I did not realise that I was entering a lane which would hit international newspaper headlines," she recalls.

Mochibazaar is a famous area in Anjaar, where export-oriented handicrafts are sold.

The children had reached the heart of Mochibazaar shouting patriotic slogans and people around smiled and waved. "Suddenly there was a deafening sound; the earth started shaking, people started running helter-skelter; shops and houses started falling like a pack of cards."

"For two minutes, I thought I was seeing a bad dream. But soon students around me were crying for help. But, I could not do anything as I was also stuck in the debris," says Thakar.

Did no one came to help the students? "Yes, some people came initially. But everyone then left to save their own kith and kin. And it was only after seven hours, that people came and started helping us. By that time it was too late and nearly 400 children died," adds Thakar.

"I can still hear the children saying... 'Maam, please take us out of the debris, we cannot breathe -- I feel miserable of not saving the life of a single child. But, I could do little as my leg and that of my colleague Ilaben Solanki was trapped under a concrete slab. There was no way we could come out," weeps Thakar.

Thakar is now at a medical camp at Lohada Samajwadi in Anjaar. But she cannot get over the fact that she was unable to rescue her students.

"I feel sad that I could not save them. And, I feel ashamed to have survived the quake," she cries.

Luckily for Thakar, her family is safe.

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