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Thread: After shock

  1. #1

    After shock

    AFTER SHOCK - 26 April;

    The three seat sofa, in the bed room, with me relaxing in a corner suddenly jerked. Sensing some thing was amiss the brain sent a signal to all the body sensors powering them up.
    And then the second shock hit , stirring me out of the reverie, with the realisation dawning that I was in midst of an earthquake in progress.

    Ranjit joins me from his room with a query, ‘what now ?’

    Even with the walls still standing, the ceiling intact and the floor steady with the likelihood of the after shocks occurring any time, evacuation from the third floor flat was on priority

    There was urgency but no panic, thanks to the thirty years in Army facing the service related shocks some minor and others life threatening had conditioned the mind to act rational in a crisis situation with equanimity

    With no idea of time left for the next aftershock to hit the only life saving item that I could pick was the wallet from the side table and replace the floaters on my feet with the casuals lying around, with no time to change to shirt and trousers, quickly came out of the flat in vest and shorts that I was wearing at that time.

    Prudently rejecting the idea of taking the lift, as advised in such situations, taking one step at time on my wobbly legs some how managed to climb down, one step at a time: the second floor, the first floor and finally the mother earth, down the three floors and reached the ground floor in time that appeared to be much longer time than actual.

    Resident like us are already down crowding the park, in small groups, ladies scattered sitting on the grass, the men huddled in silent groups, the children , considering it a game running around. The love birds, recently married and in the process of setting the house sit, pensively holding hands on the parapet of the track running around the park. The elderly, the most vulnerable, with stick in hand and experience in head, perplexed with the situation, stand in singles and slightly away from others.

    With nothing much happening, the tableau, breaks in slow motion, people ; move back to their respective flats but with another after shock catching them are soon back once again enacting the tableau this time the constituents a bit more worried and apprehensive of the uncertainty hovering ahead.
    BLS 31

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to bls31 For This Useful Post:

    Arvindc (April 27th, 2015)

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