True Life Experience – THE JOLTS
Photo credit: puravida from morguefile.com
For me the saying ‘Don’t tumble, when the earth rumbles’, holds good.
Life has been a roller-coaster ride giving me jolts at every step. Life has become fragile, i have witnessed natural calamities in the form of quake tremors. The Almighty has shown mercy on my family and me and we are still alive, though we have undergone a lot of mental trauma. Death looming on our heads but equanimity and positivity have helped us to tide over the crisis.
My husband a geologist was posted to Gangtok, capital city of Sikkim for a two year stint, we accompanied him. An apt name for the city which means ‘The town on a hilltop’. It is nestled among the kanchanzhonga mountains and is a tourist’s delight. You get mesmerized by the panoramic view, the pristine beauty, rich culture, snow capped peaks, a rich flora and fauna all untouched by man and nature. The salubrious climate adds to one’s stay.
Living in a Shangri-La we were enjoying every moment of our stay, but as rightly said ‘All good things don’t last forever;’ So was the case. 18th september, 2011 is etched in my memory. Being a sunday i was relaxing, having finished my household chores early. My umpteenth cup of hot tea, potato wafers and a good book was a luxury for me.
It was 6.18 p.m , as i sat sipping the hot brew, a dragging, moaning-groaning sound reached my ears, before i could realize what was happening the cup slipped from my hands, it teetered, tottered and was smashed into smitherens. The wall clock did a jig, was i imagining things? My family shouted from the next room,it dawned on me that we had experienced a quake.
All of us were scared, climbing innumerable steps to go down from our second floor apartment was impossible. But as soon as it calmed a bit we rushed down. The street was full of people who had come out in droves to save themselves. Serpentine roads in hilly regions are a nuisance as there is no place to stand. There was complete mayhem. People ran halter shelter to locate their loved ones. An alert was given to the people not to go inside their apartments till things calmed down.
We had to stay outdoors as dusk had turned to night, the cold weather, a light drizzle, hunger all added to our woes. Power supply was disrupted, water pipes damaged, mobile towers out of order and no communication with our relatives made life hell. The only thing which came to our knowledge was a 6.8 magnitude earthquake had hit Sikkim and neighbouring places.
We experienced a number of aftershocks the whole night. Fear written on every face. At the crack of dawn , we felt slightly better as we had spent an awful night camping outdoors in the cold. The night spent was fraught with worry and fear. At crack of dawn we entered the apartment. There were cracks from floor to ceiling. We felt unhappy, news came about loss of humans and animals. Roads had been washed away, bridges had collapsed. Fear written on every face. The locals started fleeing the place but my family gave a pragmatic view of things and we decided to stay and complete the tenure.
The place looked shoddy with collapsed buildings,some buildings had tilted like ‘The Leaning Tower Of Pisa’,there was muck and rubble all around.The once bustling city showed a pall of gloom all around.Rescue teams had been sent to salvage people,animals buried in the debris. Shelters were built for people whose homes had been destroyed,people wailed ,moaning cries shattered the peace of the once tranquil place.We got over the calamity,as the place was returning to normal after five months of the calamity,we got another shock.
It was a january night,we had just finished our dinner when a screeching sound came to my ears,i thought it was the sound of some passing vehicle but it was not.People had taken to the streets,another tremor of 5.8 magnitude had hit us.Though no damage had been caused yet we felt scared. We somehow finished the two year stint and were posted to U.P.I heaved a sigh of relief that we had overcome the worst and had survived. I was happy to be back in the north. I felt at peace within but peace did not last long.
April 25th, 2015,11.56 NST, was another day which is etched in my memory. Being a saturday i was lazing,drinking a glass of cool lemonade , i watched my favorite programme on the idiot box. I heard a weird sound, as if a tornado had approached but in seconds i saw the bed see-saw as if an ogre had pushed it, the fish bowl too did a jig and the LCD jinked , people shouted and were on the streets i too came out and knew that again we had experienced a tremor. My heart was in my mouth, my children being in school sent a wave of fear down my spine,i tried calling the school but no response.
Just then a neighbour who had watched the news revealed that we had been hit by an 8.2 magnitude earthquake,whose epicenter had been Nepal. 9000 people had lost their lives and several had been injured. My husband decided to go and fetch the children. He took out the car and i accompanied him,midway while he was driving, we found ourselves soaring in the air. The car yawed, rolled, the scene looked like a Herby Flick,it dawned on us that we had experienced an aftershock,.We picked up the children and rushed home to find fallen and broken household goods but our lives had been spared.We had been unscathed.Though thankful to the Almighty,i felt equanimity helps to face the vicissitudes of life.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the MOMENTS that take our breath away–anon
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Preeti
