New Delhi, Jan. 31 -- Twenty-five years ago on the morning of 26 January 2001, Gujarat was rocked by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, its intensity touching "extreme" on the Mercalli intensity scale. With the epicentre near Chaubari village in Bhachau taluka of Kutch, the quake caused widespread destruction in the region. The National Institute of Disaster Management pegged casualties at 13,805, with more than 90% homes destroyed in Kutch. People still carry its scars within them. "I was a witness to the tragedy. There was no precedent to that kind of devastation in my living memory," says Kiran Vaghela, an engineer and archaeologist, and a resident of Bhuj. "But what happened thereafter is important. The way Kutch rebuilt itself was truly ins...