Embers Of Hope
Mohamad Amin, owner of shop No.129 at the Souq Al-Haraj in Najma, sitting atop a wooden plank, one of the very few pieces of wood that survived the June 24 fire in his furniture showroom, goes through a pile of gutted debris hoping to find "anything that isn't destroyed."
Amin, a Pakistani, has been doing just that for the past three weeks ever since the fire left 25 furniture and carpentry stores along with his own completely devastated.
"I am trying to look for anything that survived. Anything that could reassure me I could rebuild this shop. Even the smallest piece of wood will do," says Amin, as he hammers a small wooden piece to see if it can still be used.
One hammer and it crashes into pieces as if it were glass.
Amin, who owned this shop for eight years, was in Pakistan when the fire blazed his shop.
"It was only my third day back home with my family. Everything was fine. We were laughing and joking, and suddenly a phone call came," he recalls, his lost eyes reliving the horror. "All that my worker kept saying was 'Sir, fire, everything is destroyed, nothing left'."
"I kept asking him again and again hoping it was just a bad dream," Amin says.
It wasn't.
In a matter of a couple of hours, Amin lost goods worth "QR 200,000," and along with it, his happiness, which he built "little by little over 12 years" in Doha.
Just like all the others' but one (shop No.105), Amin's shop wasn't insured.
"I went to companies, but they wouldn't give me insurance," Amin says.
An official of the Doha Insurance Company, on condition of anonymity, confirms to Gulf Times: "Obviously we'll be reluctant to insure those shops because the risk element is so high. This is our business, we are not doing social service."
Amin isn't the only one who returns to his shop everyday even after the fire left it black, ugly, quiet, and empty. There are others, but unlike Amin, they aren't hopeful enough to enter their shops and look for undamaged material.
"Everything is destroyed. There's no point," says Iranian Jaber Mansour, owner of shop No.134, who suffered damages worth "QR 350,000."
"Khallas (Finished)," he mumbles while standing with a few other shop owners wondering how it all "happened so suddenly."
"It's been three weeks, and no one has told us till now how the fire started. No one here knows," says Mansour, adding he wishes to know what caused his "ruins".
A police official at the Capital Police Station says the cause of the fire has "not yet been detected".
This was the second major fire in the same market, the previous one setting ablaze 40 shops and destroying goods worth QR 2mn in April 2004.
Shopowners though believe the blaze started at about 2.30 pm, soon after the Asr Prayers, in a furniture showroom towards Umm Ghuwailina side of the market.
"There was chaos all around," Mansour recalls. "Everyone was trying to extinguish the fire. Some were throwing water, some trying to kill it with think cloth. But it kept on spreading. All we could do was stare helplessly, at our livelihood burning in front of us."
There were passports - of labourers and owners - inside most shops, which turned into ash.
"We can't even go back to our country," says Ali Farajulla (shop No.132) of Iran.
Niether can the labourers, who worked in these shops. "We are still paying them their salary, even though they aren't doing anything. It's not their fault after all," says Farajulla, who had about 10 laborours employed in his furniture shop.
Jula lost "QR 300,000."
Balakrishnan Manancherry, an Indian, who owns two shops in the area, one of which (shop No.105) was in the line of the fire, is the only one out of the 26 that were insured.
"It's very hard to get insurance for these shops. But I really pressed the Qatar General Insurance company for it," says Manancherry, who lost goods worth "QR 500,000", sitting in his second shop in the far corner of the market.
But what next for the ones who didn't manage insurance for their shops and like Manancherry don't have second or third ones in other areas?
"We're waiting," says Mansour, "for the owner of the building to repair it, so that we can slowly start our shops again."
"We'll have to take loan from friends for the money to restart," says Farajulla. "We have no other choice."
The 26 shop owners have received a letter from the Municipality that they would only be allowed to reopen showrooms and would not be permitted to start carpentry work in their shops.
"But first the building has to be repaired. Everything else comes later," says Farajulla. "We have no idea when things will get moving. No one's telling us anything."
Occasionally, lucky owners like Sail Zamen, whose shops the fire didn't touch, walk up to Mansour, Farahjulla and Amin to cheer them up and tell them, "Inshahallah everything's going to be fine. Who's provided the pain will provide the comfort as well."
In the background, the busy sounds of wood being sawed, nails being hammered, and steel being welded, continue to scream from nearby shops.
"Life goes on," Amin says with a smile, and walks back to the pile of the black debris lying all over his gutted shop with a hope - to find hope.
Amin, a Pakistani, has been doing just that for the past three weeks ever since the fire left 25 furniture and carpentry stores along with his own completely devastated.
"I am trying to look for anything that survived. Anything that could reassure me I could rebuild this shop. Even the smallest piece of wood will do," says Amin, as he hammers a small wooden piece to see if it can still be used.
One hammer and it crashes into pieces as if it were glass.
Amin, who owned this shop for eight years, was in Pakistan when the fire blazed his shop.
"It was only my third day back home with my family. Everything was fine. We were laughing and joking, and suddenly a phone call came," he recalls, his lost eyes reliving the horror. "All that my worker kept saying was 'Sir, fire, everything is destroyed, nothing left'."
"I kept asking him again and again hoping it was just a bad dream," Amin says.
It wasn't.
In a matter of a couple of hours, Amin lost goods worth "QR 200,000," and along with it, his happiness, which he built "little by little over 12 years" in Doha.
Just like all the others' but one (shop No.105), Amin's shop wasn't insured.
"I went to companies, but they wouldn't give me insurance," Amin says.
An official of the Doha Insurance Company, on condition of anonymity, confirms to Gulf Times: "Obviously we'll be reluctant to insure those shops because the risk element is so high. This is our business, we are not doing social service."
Amin isn't the only one who returns to his shop everyday even after the fire left it black, ugly, quiet, and empty. There are others, but unlike Amin, they aren't hopeful enough to enter their shops and look for undamaged material.
"Everything is destroyed. There's no point," says Iranian Jaber Mansour, owner of shop No.134, who suffered damages worth "QR 350,000."
"Khallas (Finished)," he mumbles while standing with a few other shop owners wondering how it all "happened so suddenly."
"It's been three weeks, and no one has told us till now how the fire started. No one here knows," says Mansour, adding he wishes to know what caused his "ruins".
A police official at the Capital Police Station says the cause of the fire has "not yet been detected".
This was the second major fire in the same market, the previous one setting ablaze 40 shops and destroying goods worth QR 2mn in April 2004.
Shopowners though believe the blaze started at about 2.30 pm, soon after the Asr Prayers, in a furniture showroom towards Umm Ghuwailina side of the market.
"There was chaos all around," Mansour recalls. "Everyone was trying to extinguish the fire. Some were throwing water, some trying to kill it with think cloth. But it kept on spreading. All we could do was stare helplessly, at our livelihood burning in front of us."
There were passports - of labourers and owners - inside most shops, which turned into ash.
"We can't even go back to our country," says Ali Farajulla (shop No.132) of Iran.
Niether can the labourers, who worked in these shops. "We are still paying them their salary, even though they aren't doing anything. It's not their fault after all," says Farajulla, who had about 10 laborours employed in his furniture shop.
Jula lost "QR 300,000."
Balakrishnan Manancherry, an Indian, who owns two shops in the area, one of which (shop No.105) was in the line of the fire, is the only one out of the 26 that were insured.
"It's very hard to get insurance for these shops. But I really pressed the Qatar General Insurance company for it," says Manancherry, who lost goods worth "QR 500,000", sitting in his second shop in the far corner of the market.
But what next for the ones who didn't manage insurance for their shops and like Manancherry don't have second or third ones in other areas?
"We're waiting," says Mansour, "for the owner of the building to repair it, so that we can slowly start our shops again."
"We'll have to take loan from friends for the money to restart," says Farajulla. "We have no other choice."
The 26 shop owners have received a letter from the Municipality that they would only be allowed to reopen showrooms and would not be permitted to start carpentry work in their shops.
"But first the building has to be repaired. Everything else comes later," says Farajulla. "We have no idea when things will get moving. No one's telling us anything."
Occasionally, lucky owners like Sail Zamen, whose shops the fire didn't touch, walk up to Mansour, Farahjulla and Amin to cheer them up and tell them, "Inshahallah everything's going to be fine. Who's provided the pain will provide the comfort as well."
In the background, the busy sounds of wood being sawed, nails being hammered, and steel being welded, continue to scream from nearby shops.
"Life goes on," Amin says with a smile, and walks back to the pile of the black debris lying all over his gutted shop with a hope - to find hope.
posted by Once the Conman at 3:20 PM
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