Ground Report: Day Later, Sites of Tragedy Turn into a Spectacle, Silence Leads To Speculation

Thousands of families living in small brick structures in and around the crash site are not able to move on since the day of the crash. In their heads, they keep hearing the "boom" sound over and over again. They can't forget about the giant ball of fire, which they saw soon after the plane crash. However, there is something else that is not letting them forget the plane crash바카라” they read end on the plane and the two wheels that are stuck in one of the buildings are still seen from their homes, reminding them every single minute that they could have been the victims of the tragedy. The site is barely a few kilometres away.

However, for the thousands of daily wagers living in these illegally sprung up brick structures, these are also exciting times. People living here, who probably will never get an opportunity to fly, have never seen a plane so close, and that too a crashed one. People are amazed at the size of a plane. Young boys and girls were making attempts to enter the open ground just to get closer to the site. Twenty-odd policemen were manning the ground and were facing a tough time keeping these children at bay, especially as the process of finding the black box, a crucial piece of evidence, was still going on.

The police were also facing a tough time keeping hundreds of mobile warriors, who were standing on the ground periphery, shooting every minute of the rescue on their mobiles.

A few buildings facing the crash site took to step ahead. Those living on the upper floors were letting curious onlookers, complete strangers as well as media personnel, enter their drawing rooms, kitchens, balconies and terraces so that they can see the crashed plane properly.

One boy who was opening the door of the terrace joked: "I should charge Rs 100 per person. I will become rich".

The day after the crash, the main site of the crash too had also become a spectacle. While on the day of the crash, absolutely anybody was walking in and out of the crash site, the day after, the entire area was barricaded and had turned into a no-entry zone. The entire media contingent, journalists who had arrived from India and abroad, was made to stand at a distance. Security was tight as the Prime Minister was scheduled to visit, but the police were not letting the journalists click too many photos of the crash site. Despite this, scores of journalists were shoving microphones in the faces of eyewitnesses and families.

At the other barricade, police were engaged in shooing people who lived in bastis close by, away. The use of laathis was a bit much. When asked, a policeman said, "We have to use force. We can't let them anywhere near the site. Some people are looking to enter the homes in the damaged buildings with in intention of flicking valuables."

The other site that had turned into a spectacle was the post mortem unit inside the Civil Hospital. All the bodies from the crash site were brought here. In the next building was the DNA sample collection centre, where family members of the crash victims and others were giving their DNA samples. The bodies and the samples were then sent to another building on the campus, where sample matching and identification were done.

Since it's Ahmedabad's largest hospital, even on a daily basis, it's full of people. But these days, a lot of people who have no connection to the crash are also walking in the hope of seeing something extraordinary--be it the dead bodies or the families of the victims.

The volunteers were constantly requesting people to clear the area for ambulances.

However, the authorities were keeping everything very hush and hush and not letting any information slip out. In such a situation, silence led to speculations. At one point, rumours started floating around that since it's an old cold storage with limited capacity, the bodies were being moved to a different location. Then a rumour floated that there was a rain prediction, hence bodies were being moved.

As we were leaving the hospital, the police were still struggling to keep curious onlookers at bay.