Deep, Down, Dark

In the never-ending war between man and nature, 41 brave workers-trapped for over 400 hours under 60 metres of debris-won the battle of sheer survival

- Ashwani Sharma, Md Asghar Khan & Shailendra Godiyal

THE tunnel was that kind of place where hope disappeared. Just like the sunshine had. Always a place of the poor, of those who know the risks and yet, they sign up for the job. Like the 41 workers did. It is a story of migration and of the different universes people inhabit, like the construction workers did.

Outside, people kept a vigil. Family and rescue workers. On television and other media, we kept the vigil too.

Most were in their 20s. In the claustrophobic rubble, they must have oscillated between the past and the future. The present was darkness. They had each other. And they had cards that they had made out of paper. A deck of cards to perhaps play the game of fate, to give them a sense of hope in a piece of paper masquerading as a card. To perhaps not think about what if nobody would come for them or if they wouldn't manage to pull them out. They kept death at bay. Somehow. With cards, Ludo, and each other. Was there hope then? They didn't know but maybe didn't want to talk about despair either.

Anil Bedia from Khairabera village near Ranchi was the first worker to be rescued on November 28. But when he was trapped inside, especially during the first couple of days, there was fear and uncertainty. There was absolutely no contact with the outside world. But he was ingenious enough to create a deck of cards by just tracing designs and numbers on pieces of paper.

A deck of playing cards was also a means of solace for the 33 miners trapped after a tunnel in the San Jose gold and copper mine collapsed in 2010 in Chile's Atacama region. Buried 700 metres deep, some of the miners lost 22 pounds in bodyweight during the ordeal, before they were rescued after 69 days.