Jivrajani says it was probably the advances in technology and the extensive disaster preparedness of crew that saved the over 1,000 passengers on board. Fifty-one-year-old Jivrajani, his wife Rajuben, and children Tanvy and Viral escaped from the ship with nothing else but their lives. All the luggage, travel money was lost. ``Even my purse was left in the cabin,'' says Rajuben.

But Jivrajani is happy that despite the ``heavy monetary loss'' his family is alive and together.

They had taken a 21-day package tour of Singapore and Malaysia organised by a local travel agency. The package included seven days on the 13-decked luxury craft Sun Vista from Singapore to Malacca and Penang in Malaysia, onward to Phuket in Thailand, and then back to Singapore.

``The first four-five days weremagnificent,'' says Jivrajani. Tanvy, who's 20, and her teen-aged brother Viral would come back to the cabin to sleep only at three in the morning. ``All the time we would spend in the dancing hall and swimming pool,'' they recount.

Disaster struck on the sixth day, on the return journey from Phuket to Singapore. But the crew did not excite general panic by raising an alarm.

``It was after lunch, round 2:30 p.m., that the captain gave the first warning that fire had broken out on the ship and that passengers should come to the top deck and remain there. An hour later, he announced that the fire was under control, but nobody should leave the deck yet,'' says Jivrajani.

This kept the passengers calm. ``Even when, at 5:30 p.m. or so, the captain announced that all passengers should wear life-jackets and move towards the life boats, nobody panicked. We could see smoke from the deck, but could not gauge the intensity of the fire,'' says Jivrajani.

Surprisingly, nobody panicked even when they were in the 18life-boats, each carrying 40-50 passengers. ``We thought we would all be asked to board the ship once the fire was put out,'' he says.

But then the boats moved to the Penang coast. It was seven hours later that the boat in which the Jivrajanis were was met by a cargo ship that took them to Penang.

``Only at seven in the morning did we learn that the Sun Vista had sunk at about 1:30 a.m.,'' says Jivrajani. ``Never did the crew allow passengers to know the gravity of the situation. The only thing we worried about was that if the fire reached the boiler, it would explode, blowing all the passengers to death.''

If there was another factor that saved the lives, it was the modern communication equipment on which the evacuation was co-ordinated. Jivrajani says the crew carry out a mock evacuation drill every Monday, which makes them prepared for any eventuality at sea.

If Sun Vista passengers lost anything, it was their luggage. But then, all material losses are reparable, as Jivrajani putit.