Aishwarya's close-call --indya.com

Television actress-cum-model Aishwarya Sakhuja, aka Toasty from Sony's Saas Bina Sasural, had planned a family outing to the North Eastern province -Darjeeling and adjoining areas, but she never thought that they would end up with a horrifying experience and witness the recent North Eastern earthquake.

"On the day of the earthquake, I left from Mumbai for Kolkatta on an early morning flight. From Kolkatta, I was supposed to leave for Bagdogra but my flight got delayed by three hours. I finally reached Bagdogra and met my brother and father there as we planned to go on a short vacation. Once we reached, we hired a cab for Gangtok which is five hour away but three hours into the journey, we could not progress further as we got stuck due to a major landslide. We decided to revert back to the closest shelter possible, when found out that a major earthquake had occured. We could not feel anything as we were in a moving car but we saw people scared and running out of their houses."

Further she reveals, "On our way to the nearest army camp, we encountered many more landslides. We also found out a lot of people had gotten injured and every communication mode was unavailable especially phone lines and electricity. In the camp, we stayed for a night and the next morning, we saw total devastation all around us. This is something I will never forget in my lifetime. It was sad to see that so many people had lost their loved ones and their homes too. I am thankful to God that he delayed my flight for three hours because had I had reached during the quake, who knows what could have happened."

We are glad that Aishwarya and her family members are fine but we mourn the tragic death of other people in Sikkim and adjoining areas.