Darkness decended at dawn in Latur and Osmanabad districts of Maharashtra on September 30, 1993. A quake measuring about 6.5 on the Ritcher scale, with its epicenter in the Killari village of Latur, killed about 12,000 people and injured as many. The colossal destruction wreaked in a matter of seconds was best essayed in a comment made by a survivor to a Times of India reporter who had visited the site, ``Our homes have become tombs.'' The earth, literally, swallowed thousands and flattened 30 villages to ground.

Latur and Osmanabad lie in the seismic zone, and villagers here are no stranger to quakes, but the magnitude of devastation shocked all. A flashback to 1993 would reveal street corners turning into crematouria and burial grounds. Death was so rampant that in some cases four to five bodies had to be piled on the same platform for cremation. In many areas, the military and its earthmovers were busy locating people trapped under debris. Such mentally crippling sights left many survivors traumatised. In fact, social scientists had then stated that it would take years for the survivors to recover. Unofficial figures put the toll at 35,000.

Shortly after the disaster, the Times Group contacted the State Government of Maharashtra to convey its desire to participate in the rehabilitation work. The rehabilitation of Chincolikate village in Osmanabad district was thus awarded to the Times of India Relief Fund.

Then began the step-by-step rehabilitation of a village and its villagers.

On April 2, TOIRF handed over the keys of 133 newly built houses to villagers of Chincholikate each with modern amenities such as water supply within the house and electricity. The houses had been built with the help of engineers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at the cost of about Rs 1.70 crores. Of this, Rs 1.55 crores was raised through TOIRF, and the state government contributed Rs 55 lakhs. On February 26, 1996, five community buildings providing a range of amentities were unveiled at Chincholikate. The buildings were ment for an animal shelter, a gram panchayat, a women's centre, a samaj mandir and a childcare centre. Both the housing and community centre together cost Rs 2.25 crore.

In the last stage, on September 10, 1998, a modern school complex built by the TOIRF was inaugurated by the then vice-chancellor of Mumbai University, Dr Snehlata Deshpande, in Makani. The Bharat Shiksan Sanstha's Times of India Relief Fund Higher Secondary School was of special significance for the villagers because it was constructed at a site where all had been destroyed. The school, constructed at the cost of Rs 1.3 crore with 24 rooms, a well-equipped library and laboratory, thus signified the Phoenix-like rebirth of a village. And, of Latur and Osmanabad, too...