COLORES INFINITUM
I was in the washroom when it happened. Around
noon, the ground started shaking.
First, as a natural reaction (yes, it is also a
type with some folks), I thought I was feeling dizziness and it was stirring my
whole body, the ground beneath me and the walls surrounding.
But soon, within seconds, the feeling of
dizziness gave way to the feeling that I was facing tremors of an earthquake.
And it was a strong earthquake, if it was indeed
a quake. It lasted for around two minutes. It shook me and the world around me
pretty well.
I was at the ground floor. There were three
stories above me. And I was in two minds.
As I had slept very late, the whole ‘world
beneath and around and with me’ business could have been due to some ‘psychological
response’ due to my dizziness.
But then, it lasted for around two minutes and
was like a strong earthquake (as I had felt in the past), the logic of my
dizziness was hanging around the other logic as well.
I felt its epicentre was not at a place nearby
otherwise the building would have come down like a stack of cards even before I
would get a chance to contemplate over it. After all, Delhi is in Zone 4,
ecologically the second most quake-prone zone. Yes, but it should be a strong
one as it stirred my soul.
I was even ready to die in case the building came
down, if indeed it was an earthquake. Any effort to rush out, from the ground-floor
washroom of the four-stories building of IP Extension, was futile because it
would not give me that much time.
The time that I indeed got – to contemplate over
it – to think - that made my mind thought in two ways.
So, overall, as my visage said, I was in two
minds. I was attributing it to my dizziness and at the same time, I was
thinking about a strong earthquake.
I came out of the washroom following my daily
routine – with thoughts on these lines.
I decided to ask my younger sister and the kids
of my elder sister if they felt anything like an earthquake. They were busy here
and there and flatly denied experiencing it at all, except what they were
doing.
So, my dizziness had an upper hand.
But the next moment, when I glanced over the news
channel running on television that I had switched on before going to the
washroom, the whole dizziness logic was squeezed out of my soul.
The earthquake was confirmed, a strong
earthquake. The news channel was running the news of an earthquake and its shocks.
And like it happens, in case of a strong
earthquake, there was an excess of information with problems of credibility
leading to a sort of chaos.
The magnitude ranged from 7 to 7.5 and soon the
US Geological Survey confirmed it. Its epicentre was said to be in Nepal and
soon, the USGS confirmed it, saying it to be 36 Kms East of Lamjung district that
is just 77 Kms from Kathmandu.
Every news channel was on it. After Nepal, it was
felt strongly in India, especially in North India, with Bihar and West Bengal
facing the maximum damage. News channels were running the preliminary footage
while scrambling for the same. Social media was beginning to act on it.
Meanwhile, there were frantic calls to and from
everyone in the family about safety and whereabouts of each of us in the
family.
The information that it was indeed a strong earthquake
then opened a floodgate of horror before my eyes. If it was felt so strongly across
many parts of the India, what would it do to Nepal, a small impoverished Himalayan
nation that is dependent on tourism to a large extent with Mount Everest, the
highest point on Earth, on its land?
