7.8: From my Ground
“Why the hell is the helicopter
flying so near to the house? Does it want to blow the house off or what?”
When the floor started shaking
all of a sudden, this is what I thought. My house is really close to the
Pokhara airport so heli/s scaring the soul out of us is not very unfamiliar. I
was taking a shower. When the shaking didn't stop for quite a time, I started
panicking. I totally didn’t know what to do…come out of the bathroom just like
that or wait for it to stop. I chose the former. I came running out of the
bath, barefooted, to the ground decked in a bath robe, and soap bubbles running
into my cheeks. The ground underneath me was terribly trembling and the tall
building in front of where I lived was swaying in the rhythm of the quake,
windows clapping and people running for their lives. Yes, it was an
earthquake…like no one had ever seen before. I looked towards my house. It was
shuddering with fear, just like me…but it was not falling. I closed my eyes, and
hugged my mother and sister and remembered someone saying, “Pokhara will be
ripped apart if a big earthquake comes”. I reckoned we were about to die.
25th April, Baisakh 12
– It was my elder sister’s birthday. We didn’t have any plans for that evening
as she was in Kathmandu. I teased her, “It hasn’t been a few hours since you
were born and see you’ve already started creating troubles.” My brother had
promised to take us out for dinner though. I was home after 6 long months…of
course, I needed some special treatment. I was really angry at first for we had
to cancel the dinner night. It was only when my friend in Kathmandu called to inform
me that Dharahara was with us no more and that the capital city was almost
turned into rubble. I had only lost a dinner that day, but some had lost everything.
I felt so sorry.
That day, I had to receive a
friend from the bus station. While I walked towards the place, as I passed the
terrified citizens out of their houses, I could overhear their conversations.
Some said the earthquake was to return again at 3 o’clock, some said that our
hometown would turn into dust if it comes again, while some said that Manipal
had collapsed (which was not a fact btw). And the rumors kept on coming. I
think my family was among the few who slept inside the house that day.
The journey back to Dharan was
the most fearful and wearisome till date. It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve
been doing the Dharan-Pokhara journey but never had I faced so many traffic
disturbances on the road. Upon reaching the hostel, I lied down on my bed and
watched the creases on the walls and ceilings. I don’t know if they were an
outcome of a recent earthquake or I had failed to notice them beforehand. Fyi,
my room is located on the second floor of an, I don’t know how many years, old
building. If earthquake come, how I run?
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| Sachhi!! Navaan |
There were and still are so many
rumors with every tremor. But with every tremor, we Nepalis stood up to help
another Nepali. I can see on Facebook that so many of my friends have been
doing so much for the affected and all I can do is sit here and do nothing but
like their photos and statuses.
Foreign countries too provided us with relief
materials and funds. I don’t know much about it. One thing I know. India, our
neighboring country, has been helping a lot in various ways in this time of
disaster. I don’t know the internal talks behind this and our rage against the
Indian media. Even the Indian citizens and the authors over there were
dissatisfied, I think we Nepalese had every right to be mad at them. So there
was this author who wrote this article for The Times of India.
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| It could never shake our creativity. By my friend, Bidursan KC. Amazing. Beautiful! |
When I read it,
I was taken back for a while. Because he had written so beautifully about our
history. He knew those history which we had read in our Social Studies book during school and
forgotten about it already. If you are a Nepali, you’ll certainly feel a chill of pride
down your spine after you read it, coming from a foreigner himself.
Well but someone
wasn’t very happy that I shared it on my wall. That someone either had an awful grudge against me or that person cannot see the big picture. Out of the blue, that
person got heated up with me and this happened:
First of all, there is nothing
bad written about India albeit Indian media. And, second of all, the comment
the person did was nowhere related to the article. And third of all, I realized
that if someone cannot win an argument then the best way is to go all Bollywood
on other person and call names. I didn’t know someone could get so outrageous
with the truth that they start acting like a child. No, really, healthy
discussions are welcome but arguing over what something one hadn’t done is
heinous. I don’t know, how people can be so unkind…like one day they’re talking
all okay and the other day, something triggers the other person and they show their real self. Like I said, I didn’t want to start a so-called ‘keyboard
war’, so I said what I thought was the best to say at the situation. The whole
nation was crying and sharing some brave history written amidst the chaos of
the media wasn’t a sin, I guess. Puh-leez, stop being so judgemental and read
what’s been shared thoroughly before commenting on someone’s post. Don’t make a
fool out of yourself.
Anyways, if someone barks up the
wrong tree, that would be the least of the concern now because mother earth
hasn’t still stopped juggling us. You don’t know when the wakeup call comes and
you gotta flee outside to the ground. As for me, I’ve stopped running because
firstly, I’ve a torn ligament in my ankle and the orthopedician says it will
take about 2 months to heal completely and I ought not do an internal rotation
of the feet. For those who are concerned, no, I didn’t tear it while running
for my life during an earthquake. It just happened. Secondly, I live on the
second floor, so even if I run, there is the greater probability of getting
injured on the way to the ground floor then by the earthquake actually. So I’ll
slowly walk down the stairs with feebly knees everytime it decides visiting us.
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| If earthquake come, how I run? |
I bet we all have our own
earthquake stories.
I’ve heard people say, “I wish I
was dead” so easily. Even I’ve said it quite a few times when I got way too
much frustrated with life. But remember the black day when we were all running
for our lives, some not caring about even their family but only about self,
when the life was really endangered. Seeing the death right in front of us,
how did it feel? Lets promise ourselves this moment to never repeat the same
mistake again and treasure the short life we’ve all been given.
P.S. I’d like to thank all the
lovelies who took their time to read this long long post and bear my jibber
jabber till the end. You are all so kind. J
Stay safe everyone!
Stay safe everyone!
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