Bengal teen has narrow escape in Delhi building collapse: No water supply, so went to friend’s house

Fifteen minutes before the building turned to rubble, Sana Varash, a first-year BA student of Motilal Nehru College, was inside it. The 18-year-old, from Falakata in Alipurduar district of West Bengal, was among the many students living in the building.

He was sharing a “two-room set” on the third floor. Sitting on a footpath outside the AIIMS metro station, waiting for news of his friends being treated at the Trauma Centre, Varash recalled that when he woke up around noon on Sunday, he found that there was no water supply.

So he decided to walk to a friend's place nearby to freshen up. He said his friend brushed off his remarks with a laugh. But Varash's fears were not unfounded. He said that while the rooms had been renovated recently, the building itself was old.

He said the staircase that led to his third floor accommodation looked unplanned, and was narrow, dilapidated and damp. "I used to tell my friends that I'll fall from these stairs and die one day," he said. Each floor housed two flats, he said.

He paid a monthly rent of Rs 14,000 for his room (not including the electricity bill), and shared a common bathroom with his flatmates. Each room had barely enough space for two beds, two almirahs, two chairs and two tables, he said.

"It wasn't worth Rs 14,000 at all," he said. "My father is an electrician and these expenses are already too much for my family." "I don't know if we will get our security deposit back or not," he said. Everything he owned is now under the debris — his laptop, headphones, two suitcases of clothes, and all his documents, including his original Class 12 certificate, his CUET scorecard, his Aadhaar card, and even his Metro card.

For now, Varash said, he would be staying with the friend whose house he had gone to in the afternoon. Two of his flatmates, Nitish and Neeraj, are still at AIIMS. Tabshir Shams covers health for The Indian Express. He holds a Master's degree in International Relations from South Asian University.

Before joining The Indian Express, he interned at The Hindu from December 2025 to June 2026, where he assisted in the research and editing of a book on delimitation published by The Hindu Group Publications. During this time, he also wrote for The Hindu's Text & Context section, on subjects ranging from Pakistan's military establishment to Bangladesh's elections, and reported a Spotlight feature on a jute mill in Samastipur and its ripple effects on labour migration and the local economy.

In July 2025, he interned at The Indian Express, where he wrote several explainers on international relations alongside a health report. His Master's thesis examines civil-military relations in Pakistan, with a focus on the post-2019 period.

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