April 24, 2013. The sun was just rising when thousands of garments workers left home for work. Some left thinking they'd be back soon, maybe they won't be allowed to go into the building. Some had just got off the phone with their wives and children- probably promising to come home as soon as they get off from work. Little did they know about the disastrous storm they'd have to face.
All the workers were forced to enter the building despite the it being announced unsafe. But that's not when the story started. At around 9 am, the electricity went out. The moment the generator was turned on, the eight-storied building collapsed.
For 5 to 6 days the firemen, military soldiers and local volunteers worked with all their might saving over 2400 lives. But the survivors' stories are what makes you think about life- honor it and cherish it.
For days, the survivors were trapped in the dark without food and water. Even oxygen was running out and so were their hopes of living to see the light.
We talk about people dying of hunger and thirst. We sympathize with them. But how do you react when you hear a man say he couldn't tolerate the thirst and had to drink his own urine? Or when you see a 16 year old girl agree to have her right arm amputated just to be rescued? Or when you hear a survivor cut off his own arm from under a concrete just so that he can live?
What's worse is there are thousands of others with same stories. Inhuman and completely unimaginable. When we read about all these stuffs, when we watch the clips on television we feel more than just sympathy. It strikes the soul. Kinda makes you wonder what if you were in their places? Would you have survived or would you have died like the hundreds of ill-fated workers? If you had died would your body be such badly destroyed that no one would even recognize you? And if you had survived what would your story be? How inhuman would it be? Would you have to live without limbs? Be dependent and live a life you never thought you'd live? We don't know. But what we know is that the battle these survivors are gonna have to face is the hardest one. After a year or two most of us won't even remember the Savar Tragedy, but the survivors will. They'll always remember how their lives were destroyed by one mistake.