At 1:55 IST (19 Jan'11) when Nehra hit the ball for boundary and India sealed thrilling victory vs SA #cricket, I turned around to dining table for glass of water. Suddenly I heard rumbling and knocking from behind the kitchen balcony door. As I drew closer in apprehension of what it could be, the kitchen cupboards started giving kicking sound and trying to open shut by themselves. "Evil Spirit!".. for once I puzzled in surprise. Next moment I could feel my hairs being pulled back and my body feeling a rare magnetic field. Now I could even feel and see my home(flat@7th floor) swaying, in tremor, OMG.. it struck me, it's Earth Quake. I hurried see my maa-pa deep in sleep and quaked that "we've been struck by Quake". Paa fully awakened by now and Maa spondilytis patient wreathed in pain when woken suddenly. Neighbors around had started getting to society's park. But tremor had subsided by then. Paa enquired me and then switched to Aaj Tak for quake update. It was around 1 min tremor with intensity of 7.4 on richter scale epicentered in Pak. Fearing aftershocks, I suggested let's get down by stairs too. But maa relented saying, don't worry, and let's be together and sleep. There's nothing we can do. I sat down beside maa-pa for 5-10 mins, as they kept awake too. Maybe praying or thinking what and what nots. then paa slept and so did maa. And I tucked in beside paa in the blanket. Next morning I woke last. Maa said she could hardly sleep all night.
Yeah, indeed, how miniscule our lives are when faced with Nature's wrath. Let's take care of our families n closed ones and make most of whatever time we have by sharing happiness and giving meaning to our life in all positive ways.
© 2011 SOMYA HARSH,. all rights reserved
