Earthquack!

Everyone among us must have had earth-shattering experiences when our results were being announced, be it whatever standard/semester.And we must have done ground-breaking work in our labs in the name of practical classes, through which we must have invited thorough sulking from fellow students and haplsess teachers, who could only vow that we never got near the average in the mains.So what is it that we all share, that even mother earth splits, unable to withstand??( could it be paragraphs like this? )Hmmmm.....lets hope to find out.

My memories of earth-shattering experiences are just enough to merit mentioning and would perhaps lead to further calamities nature has to offer.But my memories of earthquakes - real earthquakes as in Japan where you get to experience the real shaking, are existent but not evident.Shocked?Apalled?.......Definitely not?If yes you can move on to the next paragraph.

I have a reason when I put in a phrase such as "existent but not evident".Apart from being hi-fi, unfathomable and incongrous it is well - innocuous.( No I am not reading Barron's ).I can explain why.During January 26, 2001, there was a terrible quake in Gujarat which claimed lives of hundreds of innocent and not so innocent people and well school exams were postponed.Guess even college exams were.There was money collected in the name of 'Relief Fund', and they even made the collection in my school.Its a different matter altogether, as to whether all of it went to the needy.Well, back then I was doing my eleventh standard.I also contributed some money, I guess.See thats why I can talk about it.

So after the hue and cry of earthqukae in Gujarat, our very own Chennai got one, the epicentre being located off the Pondicherry coast or something, during September 26, 2001, when I was busy(don't know for what reason ) in twelfth standard.

I was cycling along with my friend Sanjay to Johnson's chemistry tuition.Since we were cycling or talking while cycling or due to some reason, we never felt the tremor.Sanjay in fact asked me to wait somewhere for some reason, but I disagreed and as a result we didn't get to shake it baby!

After we heard about the quake on reaching Johnson's chemistry tuition centre, Sanjay, by now started throwing curses at me for not having halted, and as a result not having experienced the quake.Well, I too was disappointed as I didn't get to experience it either.Guess these days the youth just wanna shake, they don't understand the seriousness associated with a quake.Hmmm...I'll have somehing done about that.

My tryst with earthquakes did not end just there.Just yesterday, 26 December 2004, when in my 3rd year/6th semester ( I have the habit of mentioning of my current position whenever I mention the date of an earthquake ), at around 5:30 A.M. or so an earthquake occured.As you guessed it, I didn't experience that either.I was happily slumbering in my bed dreaming of......err...let us leave that for a while.

So from all these earthquakes I have learnt one thing,.....two things to be precise - expect it on 26th of any month and expect not to experience any.Expect the unexpected!

My deep regrets and condolences to all those who had to lose their lives due to the earthquake and its aftermath.This post is not intended to kindle any resentment amongst fellow readers.It is just the view of an earthquake from the writer's point of view.And for all those still wondering why I wrote all this, the line below the blog title 'The A Factor' would suffice enough explanation.