When the sky falls

There are days when the ground beneath your feet feels steady—and yet, without warning, the sky opens.

- DEEPAM CHATTERJEE

In Ahmedabad, on what seemed like an ordinary afternoon, a tragedy unfolded that no one could have imagined. Air India Flight AI171, a Dreamliner bound for London, carrying 242 souls, fell from the sky. Pilots, cabin crew, parents, students, business travellers—all boarded the aircraft expecting nothing more than a long flight and safe arrival. They never saw the end coming.

The plane crashed into the student hostel of a medical institute. Over 50 young doctors, gathered in the mess hall for lunch, were caught completely unaware. In seconds, fire and steel tore through the building. There was no time to run. There was no warning. It was, as one survivor said, 'like the sky fell without sound.'

All but one passenger perished in the crash. How do we begin to process something like this?