A boring Saturday morning!
The sky was not too clear and clouds were everywhere - creepy weather in the month of April. Saturdays for working people like us are meant for scrubbing, washing and cleaning. I had my lunch around at 11:15 am. I, then, went into the sitting room to turn television on. But it did not work as the signal was out since Friday.
Unpleasant music: A close death encounter
As the clock struck 11:56 am, a low rumbling sound was heard - pretty much similar to the wind blowing. I thought it was wind and closed the windows. A sudden hurricane-like noise came over and started shaking everything around me. Books on the shelves of a cupboard began to fall and the fan hung on the wall banged on to the floor. Meanwhile, I heard shouts and screams of people and all the things were happening in a flash.
Suddenly something clicked in my mind to follow an earthquake drill (that) I had simulated at a DFID meeting last February. I grabbed my nephew and managed to put ourselves under a table. I shouted 'earthquake...earthquake' while the sounds of boom-boom were ongoing. Cracklings and banging were coming from everywhere.
I was shaking heavily due to fear. I thought death was not far away. I closed my eyes, not wanting to listen to the waves and sounds that were so deadly. All I wanted was to escape the place. As the deadly sound stopped for a while, I moved out of the door and climbed down the stairs.
Luckily, I found an open space where I sat down for a while but the earth was still quivering. Although I was slowly regaining sense, my restless body was hesitant to move even an inch. With the sickening echo of the 'music of death', I was like a 'frog in a boiling water'.
I have encountered with death from very close and the strange sound that I do not want to hear in the rest of my life.
I still hear:
The unpleasant sound,
Crackling, banging, rumbling,
The earth showed her power.
Those survived are lucky,
Those suffered carry stress,
a learning of life, in a profit.
Feared of life,
Sickening to heed,
'Music of death'.
ybasnet@gmail.com
