Of Shattered Worlds and Hopeful Hearts

The waves of serenity radiating from a warm and a happy hearth is something that we all cherish. My father’s ever-happy countenance was further alighted by the sight of my baby brother’s staggering first steps of his life. My mother’s smiling face gleamed with delight emanating from a sense of blessedness. The spot where the winter sunshine imbued with the floating motes, permeated through the netted windows was my favourite one for reading my comics. This spot had become more treasured for I had a glimpse of the scene of perfect domestic felicity from here. Life seemed like a joyous celebration every day.

One winter morning, when the sun had not yet melted the frost outside, me and my mother woke up to get me ready for the prize-distribution ceremony on the occasion of Republic day in our school. An hour later my little brother came half-staggering and half-crawling to the room where we were busy doing our works and it was quite odd because he had never woke up at that unusual hour before. The lady living in the apartment just above ours had come to wish me luck and out of her forgetfulness had kept the doors of our house opened. Just when I was about to have my breakfast, we heard a loud roaring voice coming from the depth of the ground beneath. My heart started thumping fast, not understanding what was happening to the ground beneath our feet which shuddered terribly. My mother got hold of my brother, took him in her one arm and held me by the other and screamed, “Earthquake!” and indicated the lady to leave the house right then. I could not even have a last glimpse of the house which had harboured countless happy memories of us for years now. As soon as we reached the other side of the lane, we saw our houses being horrendously reduced to nothingness; first into big broken houses, then into huge pieces of rubbles, and then into dust. Coming to my senses after the appalling shock, I realized that all this while we were all sitting on the ground, unable to stand because of the fierce rollicking of the earth beneath us. It was hard to identify one person from the other because we were all covered in the dust and dirt from the debris all around. The squealing and crying all around and the sight of fresh blood gushing out of different parts of the bodies of people was making it difficult to accept the misfortune that had stricken us. Anxiety about the whereabouts of my father drove us frantic. Seeing my little brother crying who could not make anything out of the mess around but knew that something terrible had befallen us, I tried composing myself and we all tried to get to a spot from where our father could see us if he returned from his duty. These moments of waiting were filled with horrifying presumptions about him. But like every little thing that turned in our favour that day, his presence too was blessed upon us soon. We found him coming towards us in a state of shock and fear. I saw him counting four of us out of momentary instability of mind. We embraced each other out of gratitude for having found each other and for being spared of even a scratch in our bodies when most of the people residing in our block had lost their lives. The calamity did not give enough time to many people to even open their doors and come out of their shattering houses. Many died because they were unaware of the characteristics of an earthquake and had mistaken it for something else. Some had left it all on their fate when they realized they won’t be able to save themselves. For some people who were enjoying sleeping till late morning on the holiday with their families, it had become their endless slumber. A little boy near our home was found with his hands embraced around his father’s arms and his mother holding him, all enjoying their eternal slumber. There are many such heart-wrenching stories of lost lives, of lost limbs, of lost loves and of no last goodbyes.

For the next seven days, the earth kept trembling and the cruel winter of the arid western Gujarat kept taking a toll on lives. Incidents like these make us realize how insignificant we all are in front of nature. If it can nourish us with all its bounties, it can also make us feel utterly vulnerable and appalled. Yet this fact has never prevented me from loving it any further. It simply humbles us down, seeing death and disaster from such close proximity. Hope the ones whom I could not bid a last goodbye are all right. May the family of those who lost their lives find strength by keeping their loved ones alive in their memories.