Ahmedabad, that Air India tragedy and the transient nature of life

Many years ago, through a “Women in Entrepreneurship” sponsorship by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), I left Lagos for New Delhi en route to Bombay, which was my first stop to Ahmedabad, which was my final destination. It was my first trip to India, and I was fairly excited. It was, of course, a very long air journey, but arriving in New Delhi made it worth it. Here was the capital of one of the leading innovative and technological cities of the world, with a population that has grabbed the world’s attention as being the second largest in the world.

Breathtaking in parts and not so much in other parts, India was quite a bag of contradictions and several layers of differences: the politics, the ethnography, but imbibed with a culture and development that is unprecedented. In the tech world today, India has more CEOs than any other country, for example, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and has produced a British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. It is the intentionality of India as a nation and as a government that never ceases to amaze me.

I have carried Ahmedabad in my head since I visited there many years ago. Mild-mannered and very warm, the people of the Gujarat province, where Ahmedabad is situated, welcomed me with open arms. Food was particularly special, with fresh produce and spices in quantum. I also met them at SEWA (an all-women media outfit). I was truly impressed by these women, mothers, grandmothers and daughters behind the cameras, writing scripts, interviewing people and voicing over documentaries. These women, educated in their local languages, were technology-friendly and provided the all-important link between government and the women of Gujarat, giving the women voice. They were also taking government policies to the people on Radio SEWA. So phenomenal, I spent two days with them laughing, eating and learning. I enjoyed Ahmedabad, and I came back looking fresher, rested and perhaps lighter from the daily stress in our neck of the woods.

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Ahmedabad was truly a pearl in India, peaceful and well tucked in. I took an hour’s flight from New Delhi, which was a massive but no less enjoyable city, where I bought loose gemstones and faux gold to make my heart flutter with the amazing craftsmanship of Indian jewellers. How can that Ahmedabad that I remember, peaceful, friendly, resourceful and entrepreneurial, suddenly be the site of such a massive tragedy like the Air India Flight 171 crash, which killed 241 persons?

That crash of June 12, 2025, made me sad. The news hit me like a thunderbolt, my stomach turned to water, and my heart went straight to the family, friends and colleagues of departed passengers who could not believe what had happened.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had barely taken off when it came crashing down, killing all but one of the passengers.

Passenger on seat 11A Viswash Kumar Ramesh described his escape as simply miraculous. Sitting at the exit door, he simply walked out of an exit door that had cracked open, sustaining just minor injuries while everyone else perished. God is surely a God of miracles. How is this possible if not for God? The entire incident was heart-wrenching; there were whole families wiped out, and there was a man who had worked hard abroad and left his family behind in India, working hard and saving to bring them to join him. He came back to fetch them; all children, he and his wife all perished. The Black Box has been retrieved. We can do the investigation, but these passengers are mostly immigrants who had visited India and their families and tourists who had come to see the beauty and splendour of India’s flora, fauna, fabric, and fabulosity. Bottom line, they are no longer with us.

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The tragedy also claimed people on the ground, collateral damage of persons just minding their business. Indeed the tragedy reminds us that life is very transient, here today, gone tomorrow.

As the good books say (the Bible and the Quran), there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die.

Our hearts go out to all the family members who lost persons in this tragedy.

Our journey on earth is transient. No one would remain here.

May our kindness and support of others be our passport to the best place in Heaven when the time comes. Amen.