Grief and loss overwhelm families after building collapse in Janta Colony

New Delhi: Grief gripped Janta Colony in east Delhi, its narrow lanes echoing with cries of heartbreak and disbelief. Afiya stood silently among the ruins, held by two relatives, as she wept inconsolably. She lost nearly everything: her parents, three siblings and a young niece. Her world, once full of promise, collapsed when her home crashed down.

Not far from her, 27-year-old Ravi Kashyap, bloodied and bruised, was still dazed after a miraculous escape. Along with his injured wife and three relatives, he survived — but their home and savings were gone.

Kashyap recalled waking up to a deafening crash to find bricks and debris raining down on him. "I was covered in broken cinder blocks," he said. "I saw an almirah fall on my relatives. I pulled them out to safety. When I returned, half of my house had collapsed."

Though Kashyap and his family managed to survive, they are left without shelter or direction. Their house, which stood adjacent to the building that collapsed, suffered serious structural damage. "When we came back from the hospital, the area was sealed off. There was nothing left where we used to live," he said. "There are no answers for what we are to eat or where we go."

Sona Devi, Kashyap's kin, still shaken, remembered the moment it began. "When I woke up, it felt like someone was pelting stones at our house," she said. Her pain deepened with uncertainty about missing family members. "My grandson is still missing. Someone told me a relative took him to safety, but I haven't seen him." For Kashyap's wife Jyoti, the trauma is compounded by looming instability. "We built the house with such struggle. Now where do we go?" she asked, wiping a wound on her forehead. Devi clutched her arm and added softly, "I am scared. The roof is gone. The house has fallen apart. My soul is hurting."

Amidst the chaos, Afiya's grief was quieter but no less pitiful. She stood fixed, eyes on the rubble that was once her family home, searching for answers that never came. Recently married into a family in Jaipur, she looked forward to a new beginning. But tragedy struck. She lost her parents, Matloob and Rabia, her siblings, and her niece.

Her father worked for decades at a dry cleaning and tailoring shop and finally managed to own the home they once lived in as tenants. In a few seconds, everything he had built — his house, his family — was gone. "I woke up this morning to a call about my family home having collapsed," Afiya said. "When I arrived from Jaipur, I saw that the entire building was reduced to rubble."

Mohammad Rafi, a local resident, said, "Matloob's daughter Zubia and her 2-year-old Fozia were visiting her parents when the tragedy struck the family." This was not the first tragedy to strike the family. Afiya recalled another horrific incident that occurred around the time of her wedding six or seven months ago.

"Renovation work was being carried out on this same building, so we temporarily moved to a relative's house. While we were staying there, a fire broke out and my family lost our life savings. Even then, we somehow managed to go ahead with the wedding," she said.