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'I'm trying to wake up, but it's real life'

Jeet Thayil in New York

Hanish Bhojwani, 29, general manager of Akbar's Café at the World Trade Centre, was in the middle of the usual Tuesday morning rush.

He got in at about 0800 EDT. Half an hour later he and 20 other employees were right in the middle of the busy breakfast rush.

The restaurant, located one level below the building's lobby, was frequented through the day by commuters headed to and from the PATH [Port Authority Trans-Hudson] rapid transit trains. Some 3,000 customers passed through every day. Bhojwani and his boss, Akbar 'Mike' Himani, knew many of them by first names.

Bhojwani was outside at a space where the restaurant sold coffee and snacks to commuters who had time only to pick up something to go. It was a very busy time.

Right then the newly installed alarm system went off. It was a sound nobody could ignore, like a bunch of police sirens sounding at once.

Bhojwani thought the alarm had probably been set off by smoke detectors from a malfunctioning stove. He ran inside to reset the alarm panel and stopped in his tracks. The walk-in refrigerated room where perishable foods were stored had partly collapsed.

"The whole thing was down," he said. "And the fire alarm was so loud and the fire brigade and police guys were like, 'You got to evacuate.' So we left everything as it was and ran."

Bhojwani was among the last to leave from the restaurant. With a couple of firefighters and two men from the port authority, he ran to the escalators and headed up to the main concourse.

On the way up they heard a massive sound. It was the second plane crash, though they did not know it at the time.

At the concourse there was near panic. Police and fire personnel were directing people out of the building and across the street. Some people were running, others just stood where they were, staring up at the burning buildings. They did not know then that they were standing in the middle of the "kill zone" and that in a little while the whole area would be flattened to rubble.

Bhojwani started to run. He saw a lady who was unable to walk being helped on to a stretcher. "I was like, whatever it is I'm flying, I'm out of here. I was telling people to move, but they were just standing there and crying."

He called his boss, 'Mike' Himani. His boss said, "Get everybody out of there."

Just then one of the towers of the World Trade Centre came crashing down. A ball of smoke and debris roared down the streets towards Bhojwani. He told Himani he'd got to go and took off again, running as fast as he could.

There were people buying disposable cameras to take pictures. Bhojwani could not believe that they would be so stupid. He did not want to be caught in the middle of a stampede. He kept running.

There were firefighters heading into the building, going right into the area everybody else was trying to get away from. "I can see the faces of those police and firemen who got us out of there," said Bhojwani. "They must be gone now. I think of their families. They knew they were risking their lives. That's really brave. I feel we owe them."

Akbar's Café sold "Continental American", salads, sandwiches, burgers, Chinese and Italian, basically fast food. Himani constructed the place in 1996. It was built over the part of the trade centre that had been destroyed in the 1993 bombing.

Himani had previously tried the garment and leather business, without much luck. He says he put about $2 million into the construction of Akbar's Café. He owns other restaurants -- Tandoor in Queens and Deli Plus stores in the port authority bus terminal and Journal Square, but the café was his biggest venture.

The 6,000 square foot restaurant took two and a half years to build and employed about 50 people, of whom 20 were of Indian origin. The restaurant had a sports bar that served 15 different types of beer. It had a full-fledged bakery, a dessert area for ice-cream and juice, and a section that served kosher deli food.

Himani arrived in the United States in 1981 from Bombay. His first job was with Gucci. He wanted to go into the leather trade, but changed his mind and opened a small sandwich shop in mid-town Manhattan.

He says there are 62 people he knew by their first names who are missing and are presumed dead. His store catered to Windows of the World situated on top of the World Trade Centre. He says there was a breakfast meeting that morning at Windows, which many people attended. Himani wonders how many got out of there alive.

"A lot of people jumped, there was no third choice -- either get burned alive or jump to their deaths."

He says: "All of them perished. I'm in shock, numbed. I feel it's a dream and I'm trying to wake up, but it's real life. I have to pick up the pieces and life must go on."

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