Yadav Krishna Sharma
I was watering the plants at the terrace of my house in a five storied building when it jolted. At first I thought it was a soft one but it didn’t stop. I could not think of anything except my wife and my child who were inside the house at the fourth floor. I just screamed “come out, come out” but later on I was told they didn’t hear anything except the cracking sound amidst the sound of heavy shake.
Now I can recall I heard the shaking sound of the building, the tank filled with water and somewhere the rubbing sound of the iron rods deep inside the reinforced cement concrete slab of the building. The buildings in my surrounding and Tadung which I could see from my terrace were shaking like hell. I was running here and there in the terrace remembering the almighty and chanting “Ram, Ram, Ram ” and sometimes screaming “come out, come out” to my wife and even trying to go down stairs but could collect the gut to do so. The awareness about earthquake which I had acquired through various workshops, symposiums, seminars and trainings went down my spine from the brain with the jolt. Nothing came in my mind except my family and the God. I could do nothing at that moment. Still it was not stopping. And then the lights went off. But it did not stop. It was still shaking. Death was very near me and I was trying to escape from it. Darkness prevailed everywhere and I could hear everyone screaming, shouting and crying. At last, after a long jolt and heavy shake it stopped. I thought it was a long one; the very moment was not passing by.
I took control of myself and came downstairs to the fourth floor running to find my traumatized and shaken family. My wife, son, a brother in law and two cousins were looking terrified and shocked. They were also trying to come out of the house to escape death which they had experienced very near. They looked at me with a sign of relief and immediately came out of the house with me to an open space in front of the house. This open space was the only plot of land without a cement concrete high rise structure measuring about 2500 square feet in between high rise buildings. We thought that is a safe place to save ourselves from the aftershock. And everyone was there.
But how long shall we wait outside for the aftershock. How long shall I keep my child outside in search of safety amidst these high rise buildings? So, after about 10-15 minutes I thought of getting inside the house. I went inside the house with my brother in law. Thanks to the inverter in my house, the lights were still on and every massacre done by the quake was visible to my eyes. My wife was cooking in the kitchen and my child was playing with his tiny car when the quake occurred. It seems that desperate to get hold of the child at the time of quake my wife came out of the kitchen along with the spices container in her hand. When she got hold of him amidst the quake the spice container flew away from her hand and the passage outside the kitchen was full of turmeric powder, red chilly powder, zeera powder and what not. The small cubicles inside the container were scattered here and there. The gas was put off. Since the electricity went off so the rice was half cooked in the electric rice cooker. The magnetic glass windows of the wall attached showcases were opened but none of the utensils including the cups and the glasses had fallen from the showcases. Water was flowing from the tap. All the doors of the house were open. Some frames from the wall had fallen down and some had moved. It was evident that everything goes off the mind and brain when it quakes.
I didn’t have a vague idea about the magnitude of the earthquake. The quantum of energy released during the earthquake was not known to me. But from the scattered articles in my house I could sense out its affects. This was because I still have some fade memories of the quake that occurred during 1981. I was a small child then and somewhere I remember the cracks in the buildings that had occurred during that quake. I had some fade knowledge; the quake of that time was not as heavy as of this one. So, the affect must have been more devastating, I thought.
Hurriedly, I went to the bedroom, took a jacket, put some money, torch and cell phone, my only tools to fight death, in my pocket and we came out of the house, bolting the doors from outside to the open space. It was death which I was ultimately trying to fight. Then we started calling others. There was no network - it was fluctuating. At first we were calling my mother who was at Tareythang – my ancestral home, my son who is studying outside, my in laws and my sisters. After trying for a long time we could get in touch with them and breath a sign of relief when we found that everyone were fine. By this time I got some idea of the damage caused by the quake in Sikkim and its adjoining areas. By this time a call came to my brother in law from his friend in Kolkata saying that an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.8 rector scale had hit Sikkim. He also said that the epicenter of the earthquake is somewhere in North Sikkim. He had seen this news in some Television Channel. This left us stunned and I feared worse devastation.
We came inside the house took all the uncooked dinner downstairs to a small room in the ground floor of our house. The room was a small one with two beds. It had an open space outside so we could run outside incase of aftershock. With no any alternative we thought that this room would save us from death. We cooked out half cooked dinner and ate it hurriedly. My son was fast asleep.
Six of us were cramped in a small room. My son was sleeping beside me in a small bed. It was becoming impossible for me to accommodate myself in the bed. The child who is always protected by pillows from all sides during normal nights was sleeping as if nothing has happened. The fear of death in me was not allowing me to sleep. Even then I was trying to sleep. But sleep was a distance dream for me. How could it come! We had survived a nightmare. I took my palms in the head of my son, caressing him who was fast asleep and looked at my wife who was also trying to sleep. I started having varied feelings towards life and death. I thought death which I nearly experienced is just within a wink. Anything could have happened rather anything can happen. In fact, this was a journey out from the death with no survival strategies.
I was watering the plants at the terrace of my house in a five storied building when it jolted. At first I thought it was a soft one but it didn’t stop. I could not think of anything except my wife and my child who were inside the house at the fourth floor. I just screamed “come out, come out” but later on I was told they didn’t hear anything except the cracking sound amidst the sound of heavy shake.
Now I can recall I heard the shaking sound of the building, the tank filled with water and somewhere the rubbing sound of the iron rods deep inside the reinforced cement concrete slab of the building. The buildings in my surrounding and Tadung which I could see from my terrace were shaking like hell. I was running here and there in the terrace remembering the almighty and chanting “Ram, Ram, Ram ” and sometimes screaming “come out, come out” to my wife and even trying to go down stairs but could collect the gut to do so. The awareness about earthquake which I had acquired through various workshops, symposiums, seminars and trainings went down my spine from the brain with the jolt. Nothing came in my mind except my family and the God. I could do nothing at that moment. Still it was not stopping. And then the lights went off. But it did not stop. It was still shaking. Death was very near me and I was trying to escape from it. Darkness prevailed everywhere and I could hear everyone screaming, shouting and crying. At last, after a long jolt and heavy shake it stopped. I thought it was a long one; the very moment was not passing by.
I took control of myself and came downstairs to the fourth floor running to find my traumatized and shaken family. My wife, son, a brother in law and two cousins were looking terrified and shocked. They were also trying to come out of the house to escape death which they had experienced very near. They looked at me with a sign of relief and immediately came out of the house with me to an open space in front of the house. This open space was the only plot of land without a cement concrete high rise structure measuring about 2500 square feet in between high rise buildings. We thought that is a safe place to save ourselves from the aftershock. And everyone was there.
But how long shall we wait outside for the aftershock. How long shall I keep my child outside in search of safety amidst these high rise buildings? So, after about 10-15 minutes I thought of getting inside the house. I went inside the house with my brother in law. Thanks to the inverter in my house, the lights were still on and every massacre done by the quake was visible to my eyes. My wife was cooking in the kitchen and my child was playing with his tiny car when the quake occurred. It seems that desperate to get hold of the child at the time of quake my wife came out of the kitchen along with the spices container in her hand. When she got hold of him amidst the quake the spice container flew away from her hand and the passage outside the kitchen was full of turmeric powder, red chilly powder, zeera powder and what not. The small cubicles inside the container were scattered here and there. The gas was put off. Since the electricity went off so the rice was half cooked in the electric rice cooker. The magnetic glass windows of the wall attached showcases were opened but none of the utensils including the cups and the glasses had fallen from the showcases. Water was flowing from the tap. All the doors of the house were open. Some frames from the wall had fallen down and some had moved. It was evident that everything goes off the mind and brain when it quakes.
I didn’t have a vague idea about the magnitude of the earthquake. The quantum of energy released during the earthquake was not known to me. But from the scattered articles in my house I could sense out its affects. This was because I still have some fade memories of the quake that occurred during 1981. I was a small child then and somewhere I remember the cracks in the buildings that had occurred during that quake. I had some fade knowledge; the quake of that time was not as heavy as of this one. So, the affect must have been more devastating, I thought.
Hurriedly, I went to the bedroom, took a jacket, put some money, torch and cell phone, my only tools to fight death, in my pocket and we came out of the house, bolting the doors from outside to the open space. It was death which I was ultimately trying to fight. Then we started calling others. There was no network - it was fluctuating. At first we were calling my mother who was at Tareythang – my ancestral home, my son who is studying outside, my in laws and my sisters. After trying for a long time we could get in touch with them and breath a sign of relief when we found that everyone were fine. By this time I got some idea of the damage caused by the quake in Sikkim and its adjoining areas. By this time a call came to my brother in law from his friend in Kolkata saying that an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.8 rector scale had hit Sikkim. He also said that the epicenter of the earthquake is somewhere in North Sikkim. He had seen this news in some Television Channel. This left us stunned and I feared worse devastation.
We came inside the house took all the uncooked dinner downstairs to a small room in the ground floor of our house. The room was a small one with two beds. It had an open space outside so we could run outside incase of aftershock. With no any alternative we thought that this room would save us from death. We cooked out half cooked dinner and ate it hurriedly. My son was fast asleep.
Six of us were cramped in a small room. My son was sleeping beside me in a small bed. It was becoming impossible for me to accommodate myself in the bed. The child who is always protected by pillows from all sides during normal nights was sleeping as if nothing has happened. The fear of death in me was not allowing me to sleep. Even then I was trying to sleep. But sleep was a distance dream for me. How could it come! We had survived a nightmare. I took my palms in the head of my son, caressing him who was fast asleep and looked at my wife who was also trying to sleep. I started having varied feelings towards life and death. I thought death which I nearly experienced is just within a wink. Anything could have happened rather anything can happen. In fact, this was a journey out from the death with no survival strategies.
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