'Tum Bhagwan Ke Dhoot Ho'

'Women and children were crying desperately for help.'
'We had to save them first.'

Arif Bamne, who works as a master on the pilot boat Poorva, owned by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, recounts how he and three of his crew members reacted quickly to an emergency message that led to the rescue of 20 to 25 people from a tragedy whose magnitude would have been far greater if people like Arif and many others had not reached the accident site as quickly as they did on the evening of December 18 when the Neel Kamal with more than 120 people on board was returning to the Gateway of India.

14 people are reportedly dead in the worst passenger accident in Mumbai harbour which occurred when a naval speed boat apparently on a testing exercise collided with the ill-fated Neel Kamal.

Arif Bamne, who is more comfortable speaking in Marathi and Konkani and whose family of seafarers hail from Dabhol in Ratnagiri district, recounts to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore and Videographer Afsar Dayatar what happened that fateful winter evening.

'It was a horrific situation'

We were at jetty number 3 when we got a radio message to reach the accident spot quickly to attend an emergency. 'A boat is capsizing. It's an emergency. Attend it immediately', the radio message relayed.

From the distance where we were when we received the message it would have taken us 20 minutes to reach the accident spot but since it was an emergency we increased the speed of our boat and reached the spot in 8 minutes.

The first thing we did was to keep life jackets and other safety equipment on standby.

When we reached there, two boats -- a fishing and wooden boat -- had already responded to the emergency and were already near the spot. We manoeuvred our boat from the opposite side and helped those who were drifting away from the capsizing boat. As they slowly drifted towards us we helped them board our boat.

It was a very panicky situation. It was a horrific situation. Women and children were crying desperately for help. We had to save them first. We threw a rope towards them. It was important to throw the rope first because those who were not wearing life jackets would have panicked more.

Once they caught hold of the ropes we threw life jackets at them and helped them come on board to safety.

Those who were closer to us were rescued first.

'She opened her eyes slowly'

One girl aged three years was totally unconscious when we brought her on board. She was not breathing at all. Her father and mother were crying hysterically seeing her. I too felt that she had died. The girl's mother was unconsolable and pleaded for help.

I made the child lie on her stomach and began pushing water out of her lungs. One of my crew Tapas also made attempts to flush out water from her lungs. I also gave her artificial respiration. We kept doing this for almost 10, 12 minutes. We asked her parents to do the same. After some time the girl made some movement.

She opened her eyes slowly. When she opened her eyes her parents kept looking at us for a long time. When they saw their daughter blinking her eyes they too felt confident that she was out of danger.

She just fell at my feet. I requested her not to do it and helped her gain more confidence.

'We were determined to rescue as many passengers as we could'

The biggest challenge was lifting those in the water and hauling them up on our boat. Most of them were light-weight. But we took almost five-six minutes hauling up a foreigner on board.

The four of us -- Tapas, Nandu, Kifayat and Arif himself -- rescued 20, 25 people and brought them on our boat. Then we transferred them on to an Indian Navy boat and they took them to the shore.

It has been my nature to help as much as I can to people who are in trouble. We did feel a bit scared when we heard all those desperate screams and cries. But we held on to our confidence and did whatever we could to help those in trouble. All four of us on board did whatever we could to rescue those in water. All four of us were determined to rescue as many passengers as we could.

'You are god's angel'

Once all those rescued were on board they were again and again trying to touch our feet. We kept telling them not to do it. We then offered some water and helped them heave a sigh of relief. We are taught these measures during our training.

We had to keep telling them that that they were safe on board after we hauled them up from water because they were so scared that they couldn't believe that they were safe onboard. That helped them build their own confidence.

'Tum bhagwan ke dhoot ho (You are god's angel)', two young girls who we rescued kept telling us. They were so overwhelmed that they kept on repeating this again and again.

The mother of three year old who we all resuscitated kept thanking us for saving their daughter's life even as she couldn't stop crying. His father also kept saying the same thing to thank all of us.

'More people would have died, if...'

A bollard is a strong point on a boat (used to secure the boat while anchoring or docking). I don't know who but someone tied ropes around the bollards on the front and rear of the ship and that prevented the boat from capsizing completely. If somebody had not done more people would have died.

'May Allah bless them with happiness and long life'

When I came back home at around 1 am (on the intervening night of December 18-19) my family was waiting for me. They had learned about the tragic accident on TV. I was welcomed very warmly.

It was a different feeling when I saw my children that night. When I prayed to Allah the next day, I only asked the Almighty to give a long life to those who survived the accident. May Allah bless them with all the joy.