Shaky
weekend!
Well,
it turned out to be a serious issue as the quake was 7.9 on Richter scale and
that too the epicentre was in our neighbouring Nepal, the biggest one to hit that
country in eight decades. But as we went outside, a few observations around made
me smile even in such a serious scenario. One of my neighbours shared with me
the same thought, ‘even she changed her dress’. Someone said even UP has been hit,
I felt like saying ‘We are also in UP though we call it Delhi-NCR and Delhi and
UP are neighbouring states’ but controlled my tongue. By then almost everyone
from our 12-floor apartment was downstairs and discussions were on whether our
building was earthquake-resistant. No matter what the discussion was, deep inside
everybody knew there is no way of escaping in case a major one hit us, as Delhi
is located in seismic zone 4. Meanwhile rumours were doing rounds on social
media; the irony is that educated people do not stop themselves from forwarding
such messages even knowing nobody can predict earthquakes.
As
we returned to our daily chores, the first aftershock came and again we had to
run outside. This time nobody was in their night wears and some women even
managed some touch-up. Well, women will be women after all!
Once
I was in office and the moment someone said ‘earthquake’, the whole office was
outside. But I was on my seat trying to feel the earthquake, whether it was a
real one. As I belong to Assam and earthquakes are quite a common occurrence
there, we are too lazy to move out before a major shake.
This
time one of my journalist friends messaged sarcastically, ‘hope our boss does
not ask us to do a campaign -- Stop
earthquake’. Well, journalists will be journalists always. On a serious note, seismological experts are
saying there will be a more aftershocks, especially near the epicentre and
after that the magnitude will recede gradually, as this is how the earth reacts
after a major shake. Till then hope we all are safe from such tremors and realtors
build earthquake-resistant buildings only as it is said earthquakes do not kill
people buildings do. And hope there is more awareness about what to do in case
of tremors in the future.
