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Singing and dancing diverted our minds from deadly earthquake

Bhagyashree Dalvi, lone Maharashtra girl in India U-14 team in Nepal, recalls the day when the deadly quake struck

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What do you do to deviate your thoughts from the fact that the earth around you is crumbling, quite literally?

Well, the India U-14 team that was stuck in Nepal due to the earthquake realised that panicking was not the right option. Instead, it decided that dancing, singing and games would calmed the girls. There was hardly any tear.

The team was in Kathmandu to participate in the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Regional Championship for the South and Central Zone. They were scheduled to face Iran in a third-fourth place encounter at the Dashrath Stadium on Saturday. But an hour prior to the scheduled kick-off, the massive earthquake struck when the teams were in the dressing room.

"Suddenly, all the lights went off and the stadium was shaking. We didn't know what to do or where to go," Bhagyashree Dalvi, the only girl from Maharashtra in the team, told dna on Monday.

They soon realised what was happening, and the organisers asked everyone including the Iranian team and the supporters at the stadium to come onto the pitch.

"Every one was sitting on the pitch and was really scared. We didn't have our phones to contact our parents. The networks were jammed too. We didn't realise the enormity of the situation, but all of us were tensed. That's when someone from the team management called all of us together to play some games. We started singing and dancing to take our mind away from what was happening," said Dalvi, a Class 10 student of Ryan International School, Sanpada in Navi Mumbai.

After staying in the stadium for five hours, the girls were taken back to their hotel. The first thing they did upon reaching there was to phone their worried parents. They couldn't stay in their rooms as cracks had developed in the hotel too. Luckily for them, the eating area wasn't affected. After eating their meals, they slept in the lawn on mattresses provided by the hotel.

They woke up at 5 am and were getting their stuff ready to leave Katmandu. An aircraft that was to bring the team back was scheduled to leave Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 12.30pm.

But to add to they misery, fresh tremors were felt and that only meant that the flight was delayed. After waiting at the airport for more than three hours, the team managed to depart in an Indian Air Force aircraft.

"They were no seats in that plane. It was huge. We had to sit on the floor and hold the ropes at the side. I've never experienced anything like that before. But we were just glad to be back in India," said the 13-year-old Dalvi, who plays as a striker.

The players were put up at a hotel in Delhi on Sunday night and proceeded to their respective homes on Monday. Dalvi reached the domestic airport in Santacruz at 9.30am.

What was the first thing she did? She went to her school to meet all her teachers and friends. "I hugged all of them. Everyone was so happy to see me," she said.

On reaching home, after meeting her neighbours sharing her experience with her family — and having her favourite poha with potatoes — she took an afternoon nap to recover from the ordeal.

"On our way to the airport, we saw how devastating the earthquake was. Collapsed buildings every where, houses and shops reduced to rubble, a temple that we had seen in the morning was no more a structure. Even the stadium that we played in had cracks. We were lucky to have survived," said Dalvi.

That said, this experience isn't going to hinder her from chasing her dreams. In fact, she will return to business on Tuesday itself.

"I'm going to give the first round of the U-15 national trials on Tuesday. I want to play as much football as possible. I will not forget the Nepal trip, and will sincerely pray for all the victims," she said.

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