Palghar: Only 30 minutes before we arrive at the Zila Parishad school in Dhundalwadi village in Dahanu's Palghar district, the ground below had rumbled — not once, but twice. The first time when it occurred at 10.44 am, the 200-odd children, who were studying in the open grounds near the school premises, froze in their places.

"It was bhayankar," a local recalled. The second one, at 11.15 am, alarmed the school principal Smita Paghdhare. "I sent all the students home," she says, when we meet her below a shed outside the school building, where only a few minutes ago, classes had been taking place. Paghdhare, who lives in the neighbouring village, has been teaching for 30 years, six years as principal in this ZP school, with classes between Std I and VIII. "But, in all these years, I have never witnessed something like this," she claims. "It's scary. Every day I wake up, thinking that the lives of 260 students are in my hands. It's my responsibility to ensure that they return home safe."