The sun was out and blazing, it was just another ordinary day with clear skies. No one was aware of the darkness that was about to ensnare everyone for the years to come. That’s the thing about earthquakes isn’t it? You don’t know when they’re about to hit you. There is no warning and not everyone is blessed with the sophisticated machinery that could throw caution to the cruel and hard wind.
You know it’s going to rain when you see dark clouds and grey skies. You know it’s going to snow when it’s really cold. And you expect there to be fog when there’s due and moisture. You don’t expect earth-quakes. Sometimes you don’t even feel them. They come and go while you’re asleep and the next morning the late-night owls ask you whether you ‘felt it’ or not. Yes, sometimes you don’t feel them but sometimes you don’t get to…
She was worried if there was enough salt in the food. The delicious aroma of spices explored the kitchen area like a ghost in a tower. She brought forth the spoon to face her gustatory test. There was enough salt and she was tempted. But she was waiting for her husband to come home. She’d see him after three months. He was a soldier and was serving far away from home. The anxiety and the excitement had kept her awake for most of the night and as a result she got up later than what she had planned next morning.
Cramped for time, she was cooking with her best dress and jewelry. Looking and cooking her best at the same time. She looked at the clock and breathed a sigh of relief; there was still plenty of time before she could start expecting him. Everything was going according to plan, everything was perfect. She looked outside the window; bright sunlight. A blink of an eye and then there was bright darkness. It was perfect no more. Muzaffarabad had fallen. One tick of the clock separated the city and the Ghost Town.
Tragedy! Thousands dead and countless homeless. The Doctor in Islamabad watched the news with horror stamped on his face. His jaw had anchored. It dropped and it stayed there. And he thought of those who’d been destroyed and had no help; those too far up North and away from the infrastructure. He was a doctor, he would help them. But who would bring them here? No one? Alright, he thought, he’d go there himself. He invited a couple of colleagues who were just sniffing for the like, they packed up some supplies and they were off to be the saviors.
They saw human civilization brought down to its knees, close to the dust of the ground. There was no rich or poor, no walls to separate a household from another. Everyone was poor, everyone was homeless. There was no hurt or healthy. Everyone was hurt. There was death in the air, death of man but hopefully not human spirit. There was death all around, but there was worse. There was crumpled life. They rescued a man from the rubble by cutting off his leg. He would’ve died if they let him be. He was not given the choice of life, he was unconscious. They saved him, they cut his leg. His family under the debris, did they do him a favor? Dilemmas like this were scattered all over the place like sand on a beach. Who was to play God here? Who was playing God when this happened?
They hadn’t planned this out too well at all. They were short of medical supplies and trained hands, hell they were short of hands. They headed back to get both, driving by hundreds on the road who’d lost everything. The exodus has begun.
She awoke to hell. There was no fire but it was hell. She was stuck under her dilapidated house. She didn’t know whether her legs and feet were burnt from the hot food or broken from all the concrete or both. Agony gripped her perpetually. They say that if one withstands pain for long enough, one gets used to it. It’s not true. When your house falls down on you, pain always hurts anew; it’s always as intense as before every time you realize that you have broken bones and a broken house. It’s always in the foreground. Like a surprise every second.
On top of the pain there was the hunger and thirst. She wished she had more than just tasted when she checked for salt. She herself was not aware of how many times she had passed out and woken up. Her eyes felt heavier every time she came to. Her arms swelling up to stiffness. She awoke to a choice; she knew that if she passed out again she wouldn’t come to again. She had to choose whether or not she was going to struggle for life or quietly accept death. She thought of her husband and she chose life. She did not know that her husband was under a landslide an hour away from the was-home. And you don’t survive landslides.
She awoke to a choice but she awoke because of a commotion. She could hear footsteps and talking and shouting. The rescue teams, she thought. She struggled to get her swollen arm through the tiny gap on top of her to catch someone’s attention. A man came and said something she did not understand. Maybe she’d damaged her hearing too. Though, he did sound a lot like a familiar foreigner. He grabbed her arm and started pulling. Pain seared through her shoulder and she tried to pull back her arm but his grip was too firm. She cried aloud in pain but the pulling did not abate. She soon realized what he was after. He wanted the rings and the gold bangles on her swollen arm and fingers. They wouldn’t come off, her arm had swollen to such an extent that they possibly couldn’t. She could feel her skin slowly being peeled off by the metal. And then she heard herself scream so loud that she thought she’d deafen herself, she did for a split second deafen her whole world. When she opened her eyes next she saw herself in a pool of blood and her arm reduced to half. She survived, she lived but something else in her world had died; human spirit.
Their second trip lasted much longer and was much more successful than the first. They had more supplies and more doctors, more hands. When they were going back they were worried about where to find more supplies and help. They only had to get to the clinic to find a small truck filled with supplies ready to go. Everyone had heard of what the Doctor had gone to do and everyone wanted to play their part even if God hadn’t, he thought, God was testing them? The first trip lasted a few long hours, the second lasted a couple of days and now they were headed back.
He’d always wanted to ride in the back of a truck and this couldn’t have happened at a worse time. This couldn’t be punishment he thought as he felt the wind in his face, he felt refreshed as if after a lifetime. Why would God punish these people? He should punish him, almost atheistic he was. The Doctor battled his thoughts in his head as he rested it against the edge. Little did the doctor know that he was indeed about to be punished. A Cobra, black as death was loitering near his head, by the railing. And just as it was about to strike at its prey one of his men struck at it with a stick and it fell off the railing and onto the road. Onto the road? No! It fell on the Motorcyclist’s helmet, he was already struggling with all the medicine bags that he was carrying and at the point of impact he lost control and fell.
They came to an immediate stop. The doctor rushed to motorcycle to check for vital signs. But as soon as he got to the injured man he saw a face smitten with snakebites. And he cursed everything around him, for a good man who was out here helping these helpless people on his own, had died for no reason. His eyes fell on the bags and he thought they could make use of his supplies on all the towns that they would come across on their way back. He opened the bag to a stench so bad that it made his olfactory sense want to collapse. Inside he found arms and hands, swollen and adorned with blood and gold…
The death that killed thousands which came silent as night during day time, not only just brought out the animal in many, it also brought out this amazing side which can only be described as human. It happened a few months ago but a house takes more than a few months to build. The question is, how long will it take for a city?
The earthquake was recorded at 7.6 on the scale, the death toll in thousands. Where were you when it had happened, at home? So too were the thousands who died. You lived. Was it for a good reason though? Some survived and lived, give them reason, let that be your reason.
[Thank you BQ, for the title]
