Waking up in grave
Shariful Islam and Shaheen Mollah
Sumon wakes up in a grave-like darkness. A construction worker, he was working on the ground floor when the building caved in with a boom, throwing him into a blackout. As he instinctively gropes around, he finds the roof hanging just two feet above, making it impossible to sit, let alone standing. "Thank God," he thinks, "I have no major injuries and the surrounding space is empty, too." He crawls and gropes looking for a way out. After some 15 minutes, he arrives on the first floor, not much higher than the ground. As if in a dream, he searches for a break in the wall through which he may get out. After several hours of fumbling and peering around in the debris, he comes upon a water bottle. By now he is drained of the last iota of strength and the water not only renews his energy but also rekindles hopes for survival. But as time passes, Sumon's hope again starts to melt away. He starts to cry and call Allah for help. After 27 and a-half long hours of the Tejgaon building collapse, as a group of rescuers digs him out, the first thought that comes to him is: "I have received a new lease on life." The rescue team found Sumon lying on his belly on the vacant first floor, Chan Mian, stationmaster of Sadarghat Fire Brigade unit and one of the team members, who rescued him, tells The Daily Star. Another construction worker, Shamim was lucky to make his way out of the rubble one and a-half-hour after the building collapse on Saturday. But he made several attempts to enter the doomed structure yet again yesterday to find his younger brother still trapped inside. "Several times I tried to enter the rubble, but each time the rescuers held me back. How can I just sit here and watch while my brother is dying inside?" Shamim tells between sobs. He looks so weak and traumatised that he cannot even speak clearly. Six people were working at a corner on the second floor when the disaster struck. Five of them, including Shamim, 21, managed to come out, not his 18-year-old brother, Humayun Kabir. Despite injuries in his hands and legs, Shamim came to the building a few hours after his release from Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He is sitting despondently on the rubble. About 15 yards off, his parents--60-year-old Shahjahan Jomadder and Ambia Begum, 50--are crouching, staring at the remains of the once multi-storey building with tears rolling down their cheeks. They have come all the away from Nalchhiti in Jhalakathi yesterday morning hearing the misfortune. From time to time, Ambia wails, "Where are you, my son. O Allah, give back my child to my lap."
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