Kota. That afternoon in Ahmedabad changed many lives. Someone's son did not return, someone's friend did not return. But for Mayank Sen, the son of a businessman from Kota, that afternoon became the biggest test between life and death.
Mayank, who is a third year student of BJ Medical College, reached the mess at 12:40 pm on Thursday like every day. The same mess... on the first floor of which he often used to chat with his medical colleagues while eating. That day too he ate there. But perhaps fate had given him a hint.
"I left the mess at exactly one o'clock. I had barely reached the hostel when 38 minutes later I heard a loud explosion. When I looked through the window, a huge cloud of smoke rose. It was the same mess in which I was sitting till a few minutes ago. I got goosebumps. I could not even imagine that if I had waited for 40 more minutes... maybe I too would not have survived."
Mayank's voice falters. His eyes become moist. Because a chartered plane directly hit the building from which he was barely 300 meters away. The first floor - where doctors and students often sat - suffered the most destruction. Many of his acquaintances also did not survive the accident. Mayank is now standing outside the postmortem room... with a pang in his heart and the pain of losing his loved ones in his eyes.
"Every day the mess is crowded at that time. There are at least 200 people on both floors. Think... if the plane had crashed 20-30 minutes earlier, hundreds of lives could have been lost."
It is said that there is only a few moments between life and death. This incident of Mayank brings this saying alive. Just 38 minutes... this little delay gave a new life to a young doctor. But alas, luck was not with everyone. Many of his colleagues lost the battle of life in this accident.
This accident once again reminds us how uncertain every moment in life is. No one knows when fate will save someone and when it will take someone away. Mayank's story today is a signal for all those families who lost their loved ones in this accident.
PC:Khas Khabar
