Reshma Aktar, the miracle girl, rescued from under the debris 17 days after the Rana Plaza collapse would not like to relive those terrible memories as it sends a chill of fear down her spine.
“Sometimes my dead colleagues walk down my memory lane. I have recurring nightmare of those days I spent in the pitch dark of the mangled and twisted wreckage of the caved-in building. Still I cannot switch off lights in my room at night.”
Reshma suddenly switched her focus to her new life, dreams and expectations over phone.
She urged the government to stand by the side of those ill-fated people and she herself wantsto do something for them but she does not know how to do that.
However, Reshma could not keep contact with her fellow unfortunate workers and their families who lost their near and dear ones due to her busy schedule in the new job in Dhaka.
Reshma is now staying with her sister Asma Akter and brother-in-law Shahidul Islam’s house at Rajashan in Savar. Her new abode is a one-storey tin-shed house, a few kilometres away from the Rana Plaza site.
She is now working in the five-star hotel The Westin in Dhakaas Public Area Ambassador.The hotel authorities gave her one-month leave recently following the death of her uncle.
Back in April last year after four days of rescue operations with light machinery in which many people were brought out alive, it was assumed that there were no more survivors and heavy machinery were brought in.
On May 10, Reshma was found alive on the second floor of the building.
Before Reshma only two persons Naqsha Bibi in Pakistan and Evans Monsignac in Haiti survived 63 days and 27 days respectively under debris.
Reshma was taken to the Combined Military Hospital after her rescue and was treated there for about a month. The Westin gave her a job as she did not want to go back toher old profession.
Asked about her new job, Reshma said it’s better than before. “It’s very different from a garment factory.
“The garment factory used to pay me Tk8000 and now I am drawing over Tk35000. In the factory I worked from morning till late night and now I work from 7am to 4pm.”
“My new authorities trained me for the first eight months. I used to go to every department and work there for a few days. I have learned computer operating and currently I am at the outfit department. We make dresses, alter those or take care of clothes,” Reshma said.
Reshma now speaks a little English.
“I greet foreigners; some foreign guests can recognise me….they want to talk to me…,” she said.Asked if she wants to go back to her old profession again Reshma said an emphatic “never”.
At one point of the conversation as she came back to the right state of her mind this correspondent returned to the horrifying April 24 morning when all hell broke loose.
“I stepped out at 7:30 that morning as I used to do every day ---- why don’t you understand I don’t want to recall those days. You should try to understand that I feel really very bad ------,” she said.
As she was asked why people doubted about her rescue after 17 days she said: “Many people say many things. Many people doubted. I pretend not to hear them. I feel really bad. If you were there, you would know,” she said.
Asked why her landlord had told a number of news media that he saw her two days after the collapse.
“I also heard that he said I was rescued two days after the collapse and then sent back in again. Why would someone who was pulled out of that place ever go back in?” she retorted.
After that she regained her composure: “The day I was rescued, I heard footsteps nearby. Then I screamed for help and at the same time started hitting a pipe so that people walking nearby could hear it.”
The rescue workers then came to my rescue. They pulled me out.My clothes were all torn. Before I came out I put on whatever I could find nearby as there was a garment shop on that floor,” she said as she was narrating her ordeal.
Reshma has recently visited her village home Ghoraghat Oishibari in Dinajpur after her uncle died on April 13. She has two sisters – all are married – andtwo brothers and parents.
Reshma’s mother has built two houses with the money she received from different organisations. Construction work of another is going on.
Asked if the army officers kept contact with her, she said: “Some officers do so. They suggested me how to behave, talk, and work in a five-star hotel. They encourage me to do better,” she said.
Reshma said she is grateful to the army, the rescuers and the government for her present position.