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Kutchis abroad come in
search of loved ones

Josy Joseph in Rajkot

They were three in the cabin of a bus to Rajkot that had left Ahmedabad on Tuesday morning. Two Indians with Kenyan passports and a carpenter from Kutch employed in Dubai. All seemed lost in small talk, chewing bubble-gum and occasionally paan.

But they were deliberate in their acts. Smoking more than usual, chewing more paan than usual, talking more than they wanted.

They wanted to forget their mission.

"I don't want to think of that until I reach the village," says Premji Karsan, who left Nairobi two days back for Bhuj, to search for his two children and parents.

Ashok Kanji Patel is searching for his parents, grandparents and other relatives. Both hold Kenyan passports.

They, like several Kutch residents working abroad, are returning to search for loved ones amid the debris of the deadly earthquake.

After repeated attempts to get through over the telephone, many residents of Kutch district working or settled abroad are beginning to arrive in the devastated district, as the stench of bodies increases in the ghost towns.

Most are flying down to Ahmedabad, from where they continue by road, mostly to Rajkot, the last live township. From here the stench of death begins. And from Morbi, townships and villages have more dead than living, more debris than houses.

Kutch district boasts of several hundred industrious residents abroad. According to Kutchis, there are a few thousand working in the Gulf.

Premji Karsan's children -- Dhiraj (15) and Ashwin (14) -- are staying with grandparents in Kera village, near Bhuj, and are studying at White House, a prestigious English medium school in Bhuj town.

"I wanted them to study in a good English medium school. So I left them with my parents," he says. "I have no information about them and my parents. I don't know what to expect at my village," he says.

His friend Ashok Kanji Patel is in search of his mother Amar Bhai (65), father Kanji (69), rand parents -- both around 90 years -- and his uncle's family.

"I have no information. I am ready to face anything," he says. In the construction business in Nairobi since 1982, he holds a Kenyan passport.

Dinesh K Patel, a carpenter in Dubai, is also on his way to Ghadisisa village in Mandvi taluk of Kutch. He is more relaxed as "an uncle in Bombay was contacted by another uncle in Kutch. All family members are safe."

His wife Rasila, son Hartik (11), daughter Sonu (8) and parents live in the village. "I will first go there to ensure that what I heard is true. I just want to see them once. Then, I will look around for families of friends in the Gulf," Dinesh says.

He says that from Wednesday, several batches of Kutchis working in Gulf will reach Ahmedabad on their way to Kutch.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

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