AHMEDABAD: A month has passed since the crash of Air India Flight AI 171 near BJ Medical College shocked the country, but for those who lived student rang Parmar, who had just stepped out of the hostel mess in Meghaninagar after lunch, the memory is fresh and haunting.“I was waiting for some of my friends to come out of the mess. I heard a deafening blast. In a matter of seconds, everything went black. My first thought was that it might be a bomb,” he recalls.In the chaos, Parmar suffered a fractured hand and bleeding wounds. His friends rushed him to the hospital on a two-wheeler. “Now, even when I am in my native town of Palanpur and hear a plane, I freeze. That day taught me one thing: life is unpredictable, and you must live every moment fully,” he says, now preparing for exams with a healing arm and a changed outlook.

Parmar will undergo a medical procedure for the fracture soon. Saturday marks one month since the fatal crash claimed 260 lives, including 19 people on the ground, and injured 71. For students, faculty members, paramedics, and residents, the grief and trauma have not faded. At the hostel, survivors have begun returning to campus, leaning on each other and mental health counselling to cope with the void left by classmates who did not survive.

Dr Mahesh Bambhaniya, a postgraduate student, was on the fourth floor of the hostel preparing lunch when the plane crashed. “It sounded like multiple gas cylinders exploding,” he remembers. “Everything went dark. I could not see a thing, but I did not panic. I turned off the stove and found my way down to the first floor and jumped. I did not want to get trapped.“I suffered severe asphyxiation and was hospitalized for several days.

“What matters is, I am alive today, and I believe that a clear head at that moment helped me survive.”4 patients still at Civil HospitalIn the aftermath of the airplane crash, a total of 71 persons were brought to the Civil Hospital, out of which three persons succumbed to injuries. Dr Rakesh Joshi, medical superintendent of the hospital, said that a month later, four persons are still under treatment for burns. “Two residents of Meghaninagar, a gardener, and a security guard at the hostel premises are receiving treatment here. All are stable,” he said. Three medical students go to Zydus Hospital to treat burns. Dr Girish Amlani, senior plastic surgeon at the hospital, said that other patients have recovered well and have been discharged.