It was the February 22, 2011. Arin Basu was preparing to go to the office after dropping his daughter to school. Suddenly he found that he was shaking. He looked around and saw everything around him was shaking, too, vigourously. It was an Earthquake!!! Within minutes, one of the walls of the house gave way and the sunlight started pouring in through the newly created window.
The first thought that came to Arin’s mind was his daughter’s safety. He covered her head and rushed outside the house. He understood that his dream house was collapsing and he could do nothing about it. At that moment, more than his house, he was concerned about his sobbing daughter and contacting his wife at her office to know if she was safe. But he could not do so because his mobile connection was not working anymore.
Somehow he managed to keep his daughter away from electric cables and big trees which were falling apart around them. Both of them found shelter a little way ahead and stood waiting for the quake to stop. After a while, it did.
Seating the little girl safely at this shelter, he walked into the house to get some important documents, some items of clothing, and some cash that he had tucked away for exigency.
He picked these, took his daughter to the school which was now serving as a common shelter.
Somehow he contacted his wife and asked her to join their daughter at the school. All three of them spent the next few days in the school building along with others. It was a while before things came back to normal and they were able to restart their life.
Almost nine years later, on October 13, World Calamity Control Day, Arin looked back at the incident and thought how his family and he were better prepared today. The family, after the disaster, had made a plan on what they would do if such a disaster happened again. He sent a word of prayer to whoever was up there for not having to face such an incident again.
Note: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to a person living or otherwise may be purely coincidental
