A Quaking Story

Date: December 26, 2004. Time: Crack of Dawn. Place: Ancient city of Cuttack.

“Stop shaking the bed! Stop it!”

“Me shaking the bed? What the heck is wrong with you, you stop shaking it first!”

Both of us were wide awake in an instant – me staring at the ceiling in awe expecting it to crash at any moment, and my Mom yelling for my Dad. He had returned from an early morning walk and fallen asleep in the hallway again.

“Daaaa-dddd-iieee! There’s an earthquake happening!”

He opened his eyes briefly, mumbled, “Eh?” and started snoring.

A piercing scream from the guest room – my aunt was huddled up on the bed in a fetal position, mumbling about her dead mother-in-law.

“Maa-ji, mujhe akele chod di jiye, please! Bed ko aise mat hilaaiye! Aiiieeeee, bachaaao!” The bed was trembling as if it’s life depended on it.

“Idiot, it’s not a ghost, it’s a quake. Get the hell out of the house!”

We ran out, hearts thudding.

Scene inside the house on the other side of the street -

Manisha Manjari AKA Mamuni, our pretty neighbor was asleep with a smile on her face, dreaming about her upcoming wedding. She was alone in the house with her mother – her Dad and brother were in different cities at the time.

It was pitch dark; they slept with every light off, and had no idea what time of the night it was. Mamuni sat up with a start. The bed was shaking violently, carrying promises of a vicious fiend underneath. Mamuni had an active imagination and imagined the worst. One leg on the bed, and another on the wall, she managed a sprint that only Olympic standard athletes could have managed.

Out in the hall in two beats, she had just begun to wring her hands to cry when she stopped, shell-shocked. A figure was propped up against the door, a frightening silhouette, half hidden behind the wall. She let out a wailing shriek that woke half the city up. The figure moved forward slowly, hands dangling by the sides. Mamuni was by now crying in earnest – the hand-wringing was on in full swing. The figure revealed itself as her mother, who had woken up for a drink and dozed off against the wall.

By this time the news trickled in that there had been a massive quake, affecting the entire coastal belt. It was only later in the day that the news of the tsunami reached us, leaving us awe-struck and counting our lucky stars.

Though at that time the events of the day seemed fearsome, as years passed they became a favorite topic of conversation, always starting with, “Remember the day when……”, and ending with, “Yeah, I was so silly LOLOL….. I was absolutely fearless and…. Yeah, so was I…. Yeah RIGHT….!”