I was running to the exit when all went dark: Ghatkopar building collapse victim

Working as a clerk at the hospital where renovation was on, 20-year-old recounts the last few moments before the four-storeyed Ghatkopar building came crashing down on her

Varsha Sakpal at Rajawadi hospital

"Building padli, papa; baaki loka aat adakle aahet; malaa maar laaglaa aahe, pan mi theek aahe aataa, malaa baaher kaadhla lokaanne" (The building fell, papa; others are trapped inside; I have injured myself, but I am safe now, I have been pulled out by rescuers) were the first few words Varsha Sakpal told her father Pandurang, 48, a vegetable vendor, over the phone, soon after being pulled out of the debris.

The 20-year-old, who was made to undergo a series of X-rays, a CT scan as well as an ultrasound at Rajawadi hospital, had a lucky escape, as all her reports came out normal.

Having recently cleared her TYBcom, Varsha had three months ago taken up the job of a clerk at Shitap Hospital, located in the ill-fated Siddhi Sai building.

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Pandurang thanked god and said, "It is my daughter's good fortune that she was saved. We were already disturbed because of the surgery my six-day-old grandchild underwent at Wadia hospital, and today, this incident."

A bad morning
Like everyday, Varsha had started work at 9.30 am yesterday, taking up her seat in the first-floor office. The hospital on the ground floor was undergoing renovation. Its proprietor Sunil Shitap, a local Shiv Sena leader, had come to the office and left for a meeting soon after.

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Varsha said, "Sir (Shitap) told us before leaving that if we were getting disturbed by the work, we should tell the workers to keep it down."

"Sir was making the rooms more spacious and setting up a pathology laboratory by taking up some portion of the first-floor office," she added.

Around 10.30 am, unable to bear the hammering, Varsha's colleague Reshma Kasbe, 28, and a housekeeping staffer went down to ask the workers to go slow.

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"I was alone in the office, when I felt tremors. I came to the door and saw residents running down the stairs, screaming 'building ghir raha hai'. I shouted for my colleagues, but there was no response. Before I could get out, the entire building came down," Varsha recalled.

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"A woman carrying her newborn was ahead of me; we were just a few metres away from the main entrance and thought we would make it. But then, I felt something hard fall on my head and, within seconds, it was dust all over.

"The woman who was ahead of me was trying to move. Just then, rescuers found me. I shouted to them about the woman and her baby trapped nearby, but they couldn't find them."

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