While scores were injured and many lost their lives, there were a few tales of how fortune chooses some to live another day

Those ten minutes saved her life. 11-year-old Pooja had just stepped outside to fetch some water for her family. When she returned, the place that she called home was gone. For a moment, she couldn't believe her eyes. Then Pooja started crying out to the people gathered there to rescue her parents and her brother from underneath the pile of debris.


Pooja being consoled by a family friend after her relatives were trapped
under the debris of the collapsed building at Lalita Park. PIC/Atul Krishan

She waited for hours for her family to be rescued. But as time passed by she started losing hope and broke down into tears. A family friend consoled her and took her to LNJP and LBS hospitals to search for her family members. When this reporter tried to talk to her she could not utter a single word. Mukesh, her family friend, said that she had been weeping for the past four hours.u00a0

Kashi a local resident was searching for his friend Imran at several hospitals. The duo works together in a furniture shop as salesmen. Kashi said he had dropped off Imran outside the building on his bike and rode away, without stepping inside. Only a few minutes later he received a call from another friend that the building had collapsed. He rushed back to the spot, only to find a heap of rubble. Kashi said that Imran lived on the fifth floor of the building.

A contrasting story is that of Jagpal, a milkman, who went inside the building to cater to his daily customers when the structure came crashing down. Jagpal suffered severe injuries in the incident.