Deputy Customs Commissioner Singh is standing outside what used to be his office at Kandla Port. It still is, except the building has acquired a tilt of 15 degrees now. 147 telephone exchanges off air Business, in a state obsessed with it, took the back seat in the first week after the earthquake. Attendance at offices and factories was low as people strove to put their lives back together. No one's putting numbers to the value of residential and industrial-infrastructure destroyed, but estimates run in excess of Rs 30,000 crore.
Fear is now the key.
A day after our encounter with Desai, Sameer Shah, a dealer in synthetic chemicals, is explaining how the destruction of his residence is going to set his business back by some way. Did you feel it,'' he asks, with a slight quiver in his voice. First, the floor moved up and down, and then sideways. Five days after the quake, Bhan and 250 others from his colony are huddled in a makeshift camp a few 100 metres from the building. When I reach the eighth floor, my knees wobble,'' says Bhan, still visibly shaken.