Carpeenter Nilesh Vagela. File | Photo Credit: Abhinaain Deshpande
The sawdust on every surface of the Niles Vaghely house in Hari Nagar Society, where the 47-year-old driver of the Auto-Rikes has transformed into the unlikely hero of the darkest clock Ahmedabad. Since he received an urgent call from Air India for hours after Thursday’s crash (June 12, 2025), Mr. Vaghela has worked continuously and prepared coffins for victims with the accuracy of a seasoned carpenter.
“So far I have added 80 coffins, with other evenings,” said Mr. Vaghela Hindu, his bloodshed eyes betrayed three direct days of work of 21 hours of shifts.
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Father Teenager, Mr. Vagel, who usually earns his live ferry passengers, barely slept from the disaster, survived on a short nap between measurement, cutting and assembling simple wooden boxes that would rocked his dead city.
“I cut wood and build boxes and devote myself to endless phone calls from the hospital to add the coffins immediately. I can’t rest until I finish the vans,” he said.
When he first got a call for a coffin request for all victims, Mr. Vagela – who sometimes built coffins for a special income – had to calculate how much he could make realistically. “I told them that 100 in two days was everything I could promise at first,” he recalled. “More than a business, I consider it to be a Seva (service) for humanity,” Mr. Vagela said.
He even sought help from his neighbors to store coffins in their buildings, because his own home has not enough space. “Many ask me why I do coffins, even though I’m a Hindu … I tell them that it’s not a religion or something else – it’s humanity. Now everyone has come to help me save boxes,” he said.
Every coffin carved by Mr. Vaghel is no name – only the silence of lives suddenly lost and stories that never tell.
“I produce more than 30 boxes a day. I have no workers – that’s not my regular work. And anyway, which coffin manufacturer would keep hundreds of boxes prepared in advance? Is it such a tragic incident. How could anyone predict such a day?” He added.
Published – June 15 2025 01:20
