- Monday, April 21, 2025
The Aditya Birla official was travelling in a car when tremors hit Bangkok. He initially thought the car was swaying due to tyre air pressure, but soon realised that the entire bridge was swaying
By: India Weekly
AJAY MAHAJAN initially thought it was something to do with the air pressure in the tyres of his car.
Moments later, he realised that the entire bridge over which he was travelling was swaying.
Mahajan, who heads Aditya Birla Chemicals Thailand, had just finished a lunch meeting Friday (28) in Bangkok when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck neighbouring Myanmar, sending tremors across Thailand.
The earthquake, with an epicentre in the Mandalay city, struck at midday at a depth of 10 km, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The powerful temblor left at least 144 dead and 730 injured in Myanmar.
In Thailand, at least three people died and dozens were buried when an under-construction skyscraper collapsed in Bangkok following the powerful earthquake, according to the Bangkok Post.
When the tremors of the earthquake were felt in Bangkok, Mahajan had just left a lunch meeting and was in a car on a bridge in the Thai capital.
In an interview with PTI Videos, he recalled the unsettling moment when the earthquake hit.
“Our car was swaying…I said what is happening? Is there enough air pressure in the car tyres, or not? And then I saw other cars in front of me swaying,” he told PTI Videos.
“That is the time when I saw the whole bridge swinging,” he added.
Mahajan said he saw a lot of people rushing out from their offices when his car came down the bridge, “And that is when we realised that there was an earthquake.”
Emphasising the severity of the quake, Mahajan said, “In hindsight, Bangkok was just lucky—this was a massive earthquake.”
Mahajan said he feared for the factory, worried about his family, and wondered if everyone was safe.
“We run a chemical factory and we have to be very careful that everything was okay and there was no structural damage,” he said.
He added that the Thai government issued a lot of circulars urging people to prepare for aftershocks, especially those living in multi-storey buildings.
No chaos
Patralekha Chatterjee, a journalist based in Thailand, said in an interview with PTI Videos that “everything is swaying”.
Initially attributing it to vertigo, she realised it was an earthquake when she went to her balcony and saw everybody from her apartment downstairs.
Grabbing her phone, she ran down the stairs. She said that from what she saw, there were no “actual damages and injuries” in her immediate neighbourhood.
Chatterjee noted that it was heartening to see people supporting one another in that moment.
Talking about the civic sense in the people, she said, “There was all this crowd, but nobody pushed. Nobody shouts.”
She added that while there was some panic, it didn’t lead to people prioritising themselves over others or pushing through at others’ expense.
“Coming from India, I think that they are very considerate people…How a society is during non-disaster times will show also during an extreme (event), something like this,” she said.
She explained that if people are generally chaotic and self-centred in normal situations, they don’t suddenly become disciplined during a crisis.
Speaking after an urgent meeting in Phuket, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called for calm from the public after the quake shook the country, according to the Bangkok Post.
In Myanmar, the head of the country’s military government Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing said that the death toll and injuries are expected to rise. (PTI)
