Earthquake in India: Buried Alive

25:07Hey Chicago, class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new fave footwear? Step into a local croc store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. It shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest croc store today. Right now, get up to 15 % off select storage solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear base and sides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked.

25:52Find select shelving and tote storage up to 15 % off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic. Visit homedepot.com. How doers get more done.

26:09It's just before 9am on January the 26th, 2001, in Bhuj, northwest India. Virol Dalal lies on his back in the dark. He's in a state of bewildered disbelief. Just seconds ago he was dozing in bed. Now he is entombed within a mountain of rubble, surrounded by nothing but darkness and the chalky smell of cement. He starts blindly feeling around him, assessing his whereabouts. And then, a stomach churning pulse of panic. I was in a lying down position, so I tried to raise my head above. I very quickly realized that I have about two inches above my forehead. Then I move my arms around, and I quickly realized that actually I cannot move my arms.

27:01And that's it. I cannot stand up, I cannot do anything. Miraculously, the pieces of wall and ceiling have collapsed around him in such a way that shields Viral from the crushing weight above. There isn't a scratch on him. He is encased in a pocket of air no larger than a coffin, with no room to sit up, roll over, or stretch out his arms. It all seems too bizarre, too terrible to be real. I closed my eyes and I said, let this nightmare get over. Let me just wake up. I need to wake up. Because this was something incomprehensible. How is it possible that you are in this place? Because that's just impossible.

27:45You've got to get back to your life right away. Wake up, go to the resort. And that's it. Just let this thing break. I just want to wake up now. I still can smell the cement. I still can smell the dust because it hasn't settled yet. I still can feel that I'm in a place where I can touch the gravel. So I keep my hands like this. I don't want to touch anything. I don't want to break that belief that this is actually a nightmare. Eventually, the belief flickers and dies. This is no nightmare. But Veral still isn't ready to accept his new reality. I push the slab or whatever was right above me and I'm trying to push it with as much power as I possibly can in a lying down position.

28:39It did not move even a micron. Frantically, he slams his palms against the concrete slab over and over, to no avail. Finally, he opens his mouth and bellows into the darkness. The sound seems to die before it's left his lips, snuffed out by the dense slab of ceiling two inches from his mouth. But he keeps trying, emptying his lungs in a wild, full-throated roar. It felt like I'm shouting, putting a pillow on my mouth. by sound is not making it through anywhere because this is like an encroached space. So after shouting for many, many times, I realized that I need to conserve my energy.

29:33His body thrums with adrenaline. With each thumping heartbeat, the lump of dread in his throat grows. He has to stay calm. There can't be much breathable air in a space this small. and hyperventilating will only use up his limited oxygen faster. The only way to avoid suffocating is by making an air hole in the concrete. And to do that, he'll need a tool. Feeling around him, Viral's hand brushes something sharp and brittle. It's the remains of the fluorescent strip light from the bedroom ceiling. He starts sifting through the gravel and eventually, among the shards of glass and electrical components, his fingers close around a six-inch piece of aluminium, part of the strip light's outer casing.

30:26I told myself, I'm going to use this to make a hole so that I can breathe through. And I have about a few hours because after that, the oxygen or the air around me will get stale and it will be hard for me to survive after that. The concrete around him is cool to the touch, smooth as marble and seemingly utterly impenetrable. A power drill would struggle to break through it, let alone this flimsy piece of aluminium. But it's all he's got. He starts scraping at a spot on the wall, awkwardly twisting his body to get the right leverage. An hour goes by, then another. Eventually, with his shoulders aching and his abdominal muscles burning from the strain, it becomes clear that his fears of running out of oxygen aren't going to come to pass.

31:23There must be a crack somewhere, allowing air to enter. Still, Viral keeps going, chiseling, gouging and scratching for hour after hour. Now that it seems that he won't suffocate, his motivation has changed. Now it's about getting back to his family, to let them know he is alive.

31:49It was not about saving my life, it was not about anything else. It was all about, I need to tell my mom that I'm okay. Because my mom will be someone who will be the most worried about me. Because I was the only person who was sleeping. They were all awake. So in my mind, my first thought was that they were all okay. Because they probably left the building or, you know, they were able to escape. I had no idea and I couldn't reach them. I couldn't hear them now. But all I wanted to let them know and communicate was one thing. Mom, I am okay. Dad will get me out. You stay calm. I am okay. Don't worry about me.

32:29That was all I wanted to convey.

32:39It's twenty-four hours later. Viral glances at his watch. The softly glowing numbers tell him he has been scraping at the same spot on the wall for an entire day, and he's barely made a dent. The exertion has made him desperately hungry, and more pressingly, profoundly thirsty. But he keeps going, unwilling to stop for longer than a few minutes at a time. Occasionally he slips into a brief, restless sleep. When he wakes, it's impossible to tell how much time has passed. I had no sense of time. The definition of time is light. The definition of time is not how many hours in a day or the rotations of Earth.

33:28is basically light. And that I very quickly realized because every single day, each hour, each minute was black for me. If I fell asleep for two hours and I wake up, it felt like I slept a whole day. Or if I just close my eyes, it will feel like I had been napping for a few hours. So there was no definition of time.

33:56Another 24 hours go by. Another day made up of a thousand eternities.

34:07Viral's thirst is becoming intolerable. He runs his bone-dry tongue around the inside of his mouth, but fails to extract a single drop of moisture. He needs a creative solution, a way to generate some saliva.

34:26I thought about this incredible food that my mom used to make. And I would think of every single thing that I loved, which is spicy, which is, you know, which will make you really salivate. And it did work. It did work. My tongue became wet and then I gulp it down and I tried to quench my own thirst. This thing did not work for too long, but it did work. It made me realize that my mind was able to do things which can change things for me. For the last 48 hours, he's been focused on physical escape. But maybe he should start harnessing the power of his own mind. He looks around at his dark, cramped prison.

35:12And instead of raging against the situation, instead of screaming and clawing at the walls, Biral tries something else. He says to himself, you know what? It could be worse. So I told myself, I said, well, you are in a place which is, nobody in the world, not even an insect, knows where you are trapped, where you are. You can do whatever you want. You are in the most secure place in the whole world. Think about people who drowned. Think about people who were in a hurricane. People who were in a shipwreck. you are in such an amazing condition, such an amazing position and you are crying for water?

35:54You are thinking about water? Are you in a better position or not? And that made myself see my own self in a different perspective. I felt that I was okay. I was just thirsty. It's just been like two days since I haven't had water. But so what?

36:14The ability to alter his own perspective isn't accidental. It's something he learned from his father. Growing up, his dad had a favorite saying, one he would repeat whenever life got difficult. My father would always say, Choo chema, choo chema. It simply is a thing where, you know, why are you giving importance to something so small? What's the big deal? What's the big deal? As soon as I hear my father say that, I felt like, yeah, what's the big deal? My mother always used to say that, Viral, I know he can do anything. She will always say that. You can do anything. I know that. And as a child, I believed it.

36:57And I always did believe it. And this was not just a belief, but I knew it. It was a fact. So at this point in time, these were not the things that I was thinking about, these were just part of me.

37:38It's been three days since the earthquake, and still no sign of rescue. What's going on up there? Veralt strains his ears, listening out for voices or machinery. But there is only silence, an endless expanse of nothing. If the rescue operation is underway, they're certainly nowhere close to reaching him. Still, he continues to try and dig his way to freedom. But the lack of progress is starting to affect his morale. After a few hours, I would try to touch the surface where I'm scratching. And the progress was probably 0.1%. And it would be so demotivating. Because I have been working, I'm sweating.

38:32Because, you know, I'm trying to keep my neck up. and I'm exerting as much pressure as possible and nothing is happening. In a flash of anger and despair, Viral throws his metal tool to one side. He's in danger of letting his frustration get the better of him. He needs inspiration. Right now, I don't have much option but to keep going. So I was trying to take this helicopter ride of my life, taking a helicopter view, and trying to see if I can find something from my life that I have done before, I have seen before, and I can use something from the past. What from his past can he utilize to help him right now?

39:21There's one story from when he was eight years old. His father, a geologist, would sometimes come home from work with rocks to show the boys. One day, he showed Viral and Roshan a rock with a small round hole in the side. And he said, this hole, about one, one and a half inch deep hole, was made by this consistent drop of water falling in the same spot for more than 10 years. As a child, it was not very interesting for me because, yeah, that was okay. I mean, great, but I didn't know the importance of it. But it stayed in my subconscious. And now that I was trying to break this wall, I was thinking of that moment when I was probably like 8 or 10 years old, when my father brought this rock.

40:14And that gave me this drive to keep going, keep digging. It will make a difference.

40:50We'll be right back. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today. Right now, get up to 15 % off select storage solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear base and sides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find select shelving and tote storage up to 15 % off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic. Visit HomeDepot.com, how doers get more done.

41:34It's January the 30th, four and a half days since the earthquake. Viral lethargically drags the metal across the concrete wall, where the hole he's carved out is no bigger than a match head. Four days without food have brought on waves of intense exhaustion. In the pitch darkness, the boundary between sleep and wakefulness has become permeable, with very little difference between the two states.

42:05But then, from somewhere very distant, he hears it. Dogs barking. Listening closely, he hears the distant rumble of a vehicle. And finally, faint but clear enough to convince him he's not dreaming, the sound of voices.

42:31So I shouted for help. I said, Bacchao, bacchao means help. And, Koi chhe, Koi chhe, hello, hello. I shouted aloud. And then someone responded very quickly. Someone said, I hear a voice. Stop, stop, stop, stop. I can hear it. I can hear it. So he told me to repeat. He said, is anybody there? And I shouted back. And that's when the person outside confirmed that he could hear someone from inside. And that's when it was known that there's someone stuck. The rescue team assure him that they're working on getting him out as soon as possible. But Viral isn't worried about himself. He needs to know what happened to his family.

43:17A few hours later, a familiar voice filters down through the rubble. That of his cousin's husband, Raghu, who is helping with the rescue effort. Raghu asks if he's okay. Viral says he's fine, but what about the others? My first question was, where is my family? Where is everybody else? He said, you first come out. Everything will be fine, you first come out. I said, but where are they? And he said, we don't know, but you first come out. Don't worry about them.

43:50It takes hours for the rescuers to reach him. When they're close enough, they drill through the concrete slab above his head, creating a hole that opens up like a sudden rift in the night sky.

44:09And that is the first time when I saw the light. The light for the first time in the last four and a half days. And I can never forget this moment when I'm lying down and I see this light coming into this little black, blackest enclosure and filling it up with light.

44:35The rescue team pull Viral from the ruins of the building. After nearly five days buried, he's finally out. But there's no relief to be had. The apocalyptic scene that greets him is far worse than anything he could have imagined. The entire city has been levelled. Grey dust clings to his pajamas as he is led barefoot to a waiting ambulance. Concerned, relatives and neighbors surround him But Viral only has questions for them I asked them if they had found my father, mother, brother, my sister-in-law or my nephew And the answer was no They were looking for answers from me If I had heard their voice And that is a time when I realized that They were probably all still inside Once again, this nightmare was not yet over.

45:42It's January the 30th, 2001 in Bhuj in Northwest India. After being pulled from the rubble, Viral insists he's ready to join the search effort immediately. But the rescue team won't entertain the idea. The ambulance takes him to a nearby hospital, where doctors check him for injuries. To their astonishment, he is completely unscathed. Half an hour later, Viral is back at the site of the collapsed building, helping the emergency rescue workers excavate the ruins. When he was trapped under the wreckage, Viral held fast to the belief that his family was safe. Now, doubt begins to creep in.

46:31It broke the belief that I had when I was inside. But now it was not just a belief, but now it was hope. So hope was taking shape. It was time for me to help.

46:47Viral is able to provide the rescue workers with information about the layout of the apartment and roughly where his family members likely were at the time of the building's collapse. The hydraulic arm of the excavator claws away the rubble, hauling aside heaps of shredded plaster, pulverized cement and mangled steel pipework. The work is slow, painstaking, agonizing. When night falls, the search continues beneath floodlights. Viral's relatives urge him to take a break. He needs to eat something. How can I be hungry? How can I think of hunger when my brother or my mother or my father or my sister-in-law are probably dealing with or fighting between life and death?

47:36But my relatives took me there and said that if you want to work tomorrow, if you want to help tomorrow, you need energy first. Eventually he gives in. He forces down some food, then spends a sleepless night in an emergency tent set up for rescue workers. I was looking at the top of this tent and I was just praying to God that, please, get my family back. Let this nightmare get over.

48:11Tragically, his prayers go unanswered. Over the course of the next four days, the rescue team pulls each of his family members from the ruins. None of them survived.

48:25I lost my father, mother, brother, my sister-in-law, and my two-year-old nephew. In these four days, that's when everything broke loose. The hope that I had, it crashed to the ground. Everything was finished.

48:51In the aftermath of the earthquake, the full, devastating scale of the catastrophe gradually comes into focus. In towns and cities across Gujarat, bodies continue to be exhumed from the rubble. Viral performs last rites for each of his family members. Then he returns to his childhood home in Ahmedabad. But everything's different now. His loved one's absence is felt everywhere.

49:23I'm returning to the same house now it's just a house it's not a home I'm looking at the same couch where my dad would sit with a newspaper and a magazine and I'm looking at the same place and I'm still hoping that my mom will open the door and when I open the door my dad will still be sitting there or somebody will be running down the stairs you know it's not there looking at the posters in my room and I'm going into my brother's bedroom and looking at my mom and dad's room. Everything is just dull. Everything is dead. Everything is so lame. These posters look so lame. It just is so empty, void.

50:12And that was the reality of it. I had to live with that. Viral must now grapple with the question of what comes next His scheduled return to the US comes and goes The college admissions office lets him defer the completion of his degree for as long as he needs But how long does he need? How does anyone pick themselves up after this? Now it was time for me to build my life from scratch from, not ground up, but from the dungeons. And I was not even interested. What are you going to do? What would you do? You wouldn't know what to do because we are not trained for it. We don't know. We don't know what, like, you know, how to.

51:03This is not in our schooling or... Nobody teaches us any of it, right?

51:15In the immediate term, he has his family's legal affairs to get an order. That at least provides his days with some structure. More than 20 ,000 people were killed in the Gujarat earthquake, prompting a period of national mourning across India. But as the weeks turn into months, stories about the earthquake fade from the news cycle. As time goes on, Viral's personal tragedy is one he must navigate alone.

51:48But I don't know, I'm lost. I don't know how I'm going to move forward, take first step. Or why should I? How would I? But then again, shoot him. What's the big deal? My son can do anything. Viral can do anything. When someone says that with 100 % conviction, and when that becomes your being, you go with it. You go with it. His family might be gone, but their belief in him endures. It endures so long as he remembers it and gives life to it. And so, seven months after the earthquake, Viral packs up a suitcase with clothes, books, and family photographs. and returns to America to complete his master's degree.

52:40From that moment on, he makes it his obligation to seek light in the darkness. It isn't always easy, but for Viral, everything boils down to a single choice. Light or dark. I could have chosen to stay in that darkness in my life. And I could have chosen to kind of, you know, not move very much after that. Talk about all the darkness in life. But there are two aspects to it. You either talk about all the darkness or you focus on the light. What did you learn from it? How can you teach somebody something from what you have learned? How can you enhance your own life? How can you make life better?

53:30Today, almost 25 years on from the earthquake, Viral has built his life back up from the dungeons. He lives in Virginia in the US with a family of his own. Again and again, the weight of his grief pulls him down. But he says that whenever he feels lost, he tries to turn to the people who first showed him the way. Every step of the way, I always go back to the point where I think of my parents. And if they were present, would they like this or would they not? I get my answer very quickly

54:12next time on Real Survival Stories we meet David Cicutello in the spring of 2011 the 57 year old college administrator sets out to explore Utah's canyons with his older brother Louis for David these climbing trips are as much about bonding with his sibling as they are about enjoying nature But when a tricky maneuver in a remote desert canyon goes horribly wrong, David finds himself stranded without a rope and without his brother and mentor. Battling bitter cold and the ever-present danger of Rockfall, David has no choice but to hunker down on a narrow ledge with scant supplies and no means of escape.

54:55That's next time on Real Survival Stories.

55:03Listen right now without waiting and without ads by subscribing to Noisa+.