Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 6, 1993 TAG: 9310060266
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mani, a 25-year-old Virginia Tech student from Pune, India, called his parents Friday to make sure they were all right. They were, but his family hadn't heard from his sister, a social worker working among the villages that were hit by the quake.
It was the weekend before he found out she was safe.
The quake, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, nearly destroyed some villages while sparing others nearby.
"Luckily, she was in one of those [spared] villages," he said. Two days earlier, Smriti Joseph had been in one of the villages that was destroyed.
"She said there was total devastation," Mani said his sister told his parents after she arrived home in Pune, less than 300 miles from the quake's epicenter. She hadn't been able to get in contact with them earlier because phone lines weren't working.
Mani's worries probably were more specific than those of most Indians and Indian-Americans living in the Roanoke and New River valleys - and the United States in general - who don't have direct familial links to the area of India where the earthquake did the greatest damage.
The quake toppled the rock-and-mud huts of villagers in southeastern Maharashtra, a rural area where farmers raise sugar cane, barley and sorghum.
Many Indians who have come to America were raised in the cities of India and are from middle-class and upper-middle-class families, said Alan Krishnan, president of the India Association of the Roanoke Valley, which comprises about 115 families.
Still, they feel sadness and shock, coupled with a sense of responsibility that seems to grow as the death toll - estimated at 30,000 - has risen each day.
"People are just appalled at what happened," Krishnan said. "We've never had a disaster like this before.
"It's the helplessness of the situation that is so frustrating."
According to 1990 U.S. Census figures there were 367 Indians in the Roanoke Valley and 713 in the New River Valley.
At Virginia Tech, there are about 300 Indian students - many the children of doctors, engineers and scientists, said Alok Bhandari, president of Tech's Indian Students Association.
"Most of the Indians [here], even by American standards, are well-off," said Nachiketa Tiwari, 27, vice president of the group. "The potential for the Indian community to help is very large."
"We all have a responsibility to take care of our country," said Lav Batra, 20. Batra, who moved to America at age 11 and whose parents live in Charlottesville, is president of the undergraduate student Society of Indian Americans at Tech.
"It's a sense of duty that draws us all," Batra said.
The two groups are collecting donations to send to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
In a country that experiences floods in the north, endures monsoons and hurricanes in the east, and witnessed the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy which killed 3,800 people, the disaster has surmounted all others Indians here can remember.
"We were really shocked as the numbers kept increasing," Bhandari said. In India, "a lot of people think it's an act of God."
"Nobody expected it in that region," said Sandeep Kavi, a 25-year-old engineering major from Ahmednagar.
"My mom was really scared on the phone," said Kavi, who called her Friday. "Everybody was on the street" after the city - located several hundred miles northeast of the quake's epicenter - felt tremors.
"All of them were caught unawares," said Dinesh Deshmukh, another Tech student. The quake struck about 4 a.m., while most were asleep. "There were whole villages that were razed out - completely."
Deshmukh, 24, is one of the few whose concerns lay with the fortunes of family members living near the quake's devastation. He finally got through by telephone Saturday to a cousin living in the Umerga district of Maharashtra. He, too, was all right. But for thousands of Deshmukh's people, the situation is grave.
"I don't know how people are coping over there," he said.
To contribute funds to relief causes, in Roanoke call Alan Krishnan at 345-0854; checks can be made out to the Red Cross or the India Association of the Roanoke Valley and sent to 5209 Lakeland Drive, Roanoke 24018. In Blacksburg, call Alok Bhandari at 951-3537, or the Cranwell International Center at 231-6527.\
by CNB