Now that we got our belongings, what happens next?? Aunty called out asking if any windows could be opened. How? The left hand side windows were below our feet and the windows on the right side were over our heads and jammed shut. I guess its by pure instinct that we started climbing over the fallen berths. Clinging onto my luggage and holding onto the bed sheet to keep me from suffocating, I slowly tried to crawl my way out. It was difficult maintaining my balance, considering the fact that both my hands were occupied. Seeing this, aunty hurriedly instructed me to throw away the bed sheet. I thought “if I do that, how am I gonna breathe through this smoke and dust? God if u really want me out of this alive, help me breathe.”
What seemed an eternity of crawling and climbing over seats, feeling fans in iron wrought encasings and groping around in the dim light, we were guided by this deep, baritoned voice that was full of confidence. All I remember was a bright torch light and this deep voice that kept encouraging the passengers “its ok, u all are all right, just be calm and climb out”. I’ll never know, to this day, who that man was.
I next realize a hole a few metres away from where I was. I could see lights flashing in. For a minute I thought it was some TV station that got to the accident scene and the humour in me quipped up, “look good,Bless…give a nice grimace…you might be on TV.” Well, so much for my silly fanstasy in the midst of the commotion. The lights came from the torches of the rescue teams and police. I was about to crawl out of this hole torn into the vestibule when a man stopped me. He had a huge plank in his hand and was trying to lift it up. He wanted to create a makeshift bridge for people to slide across to the hole and get outside. I was delirious and said something about my luggage. The man instructed me to throw it out and that someone would keep it safe. So I hurled my box out blindly. On my knees, I bent down to take the other side of the plank and lifted it. What was written on the plank shocked me. It bore the words “BATHROOM”. Yes, it turned out to be the door and the impact of the train tore it off its hinges. With the plank up as a makeshift bridge, and a small graze on m little finger, I slid across to the opening in the vestibule and breathed in fresh air. My luggage was handed back to me and I waited for shobana aunty to get out safe. Its only when we got out that we realized what happened. 5 of the train’s compartments had derailed, and the compartment that I was in, toppled. The pantry had caught fire which explains all the smoke. People were calling out to each other and there were tears of happiness to see each other safe. But my friends were in other compartments and they still did not know if aunty n I were alive. I was not reachable, as I’d lost my phone.
Aunty and I waited for sometime when suddenly a man called out our names. We hollered back and he said in tamil that there was a family looking for us. We knew it was Ajai and his family. He took us to the other side of the train. We couldn’t find them at all. We asked the man to look for them again. I borrowed a phone from a stranger. Luckily aunty had her phone book in her bag. I called up Jessy aunty, Ajai’s mom. Hearing my voice over the phone, she went hysterical and she could not speak. I talked to Riba, one of Ajai’s cousins and she told us how we could get to where they were waiting.
Carrying both mine and aunty’s luggages (she wasn’t feeling well) and balancing myself on the huge stones that line the train tracks, we inched our way forward. We met up with Ajai’s family. Hugs, tears and smiles of joy were exchanged. That was when I heard Ajai’s side of the story. He apparently got out of the train as soon as it stopped. When he saw my compartment toppled onto its side and smoke billowing everywhere, all he could picture was my burnt charred body. He ran back to his family in the other compartment, hysterical and delirious in shock. He and his family moved to a safer spot outside the train. Ajai went back to the accident area. Apparently there were some jawans and he enquired about aunty and me. The jawan instructed groups of people to call out my name, each group returning with the answer, “there is no such person here”. Almost losing heart, Ajai suddenly got a call from his cousin that I was indeed alive.
Thinking we’d never travel by train again, we found ourselves hopping from two trains to get back to Chennai. On our way back, we had to pass by the accident site again. By then it was daylight and we could see the entire thing. The train stopped for surviving passengers and I took it as an opportunity to take pictures from my camera.
We reached Chennai at 12.30pm, 6 hours delayed from our original arrival time. The impact of the accident hit me only when I saw the accident on the local TV news. That was when I broke down and realized that THERE IS A GOD WHO LIVES AND LOVES.!!
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