Nine
26 January is a happy day for all Indians. Whether or not you feel patriotic, it
is a guaranteed holiday in the first month of the year. I remember thinking it
would be the last holiday at our temple shop since we were scheduled to move to
the new mall on Valentine's Day. Apart from the deposit, we had spent another
sixty thousand to fit out the interiors. I borrowed ten thousand from my mother,
purely as a loan. Ish's dad refused to give any money. Omi, even though I had
said no, took the rest in loan from Bittoo Mama.
The night before Republic Day, I lay in bed with my thoughts. I had invested a
hundred and ten thousand rupees. My business had already reached lakhs.
Should we do a turf carpet throughout? Now that would be cool for a sports shop.
I dreamed of my chain of stores the whole night.
'Stop shaking me mom, I want to sleep,' I screamed. Can't the world let a
businessman sleep on a rare holiday.
But mom didn't shake me. I moved on my own. I opened my eyes. My bed went
back and forth too. I looked at the wall clock. It had fallen on the floor. The room
furniture, fan and windows vibrated violently.
I rubbed my eyes, what was this? Nightmares?
I stood up and went to the window. People on the street ran haphazardly in
random directions.
'Govind,' my mother screamed from the other room, 'hide under the table. It is
an earthquake.'
'What?' I said and ducked under the side table kept by the window in reflex. I
could see the havoc outside. Three TV antennas horn the opposite building fell
down. A telephone pole broke and collapsed on the ground.
The tremors lasted for forty-five seconds, the most destructive and longest
forty-five seconds of my life. Of course, I did not know n then. A strange silence
followed the earthquake.
'Mom,' I screamed.
'Govind, don't move,' she screamed back.
'It is gone,' I said after ten more minutes had passed, 'you
ok?'
I came out to the living room. Everything on the wall -I alendars, paintings and
lampshades, lay on the floor.
'Govind,' my mother came and hugged me. Yes, I was fine. My mother was fine
too.
'Let's get out,' she said.
'Why?'
'The building might collapse.'
'I don't think so,' I said as my mother dragged me out in my pajamas. The
street was full of people.
'Is it a bomb?' a man spoke to the other in whispers.
'Earthquake. It's coming on TV. It started in Bhuj,' a man on the street said.
'Bad?' the other man said.