If God Be With Us…Who Can Be Against Us!
I always think that putting any major incident into words, limits it, somehow has drawn boundaries...somehow can be only as much as the writer can convey and no more...
The 2004 Tsunami was, I think beyond words for those of us who were unfortunate enough to experience it and fortunate enough to be alive to recount it...
At that time we were in Carnicobar, an island, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The place was breathtakingly beautiful and the turquoise blue-green sea and the white sandy beaches always made me pause and think how beautiful the surroundings were. More often than not, we tend to get caught up in our day to day activities and forget to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us...luckily, we didn't fall into that trap. Every evening we'd go out and enjoy the blue sea and the white beaches, which were just a stone's throw away from our quarters. I always found watching the waves very enjoyable, ...very serene...something very calming and soothing about their back and forth movement...To think that it would all change one morning...
26th of December didn't start like other days for any of us. Before we could even wake up from our Sunday morning slumber, the violent earthquake rudely shook us awake. I had never experienced an earthquake before, and I was shocked at its intensity...Only later we were to know, that it was one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history...It was with great difficulty that I and my husband literally dragged our daughter out of the house...The floor was moving and when I recounted it later, I would always compare it to crossing two compartments in a train, where the plates keep shaking....Terra Firma was no longer a firm holding ground.
We walked out of our home in our night clothes, still reeling under the shock of the earthquake, to find our neighbors equally dazed and confused. By the time all our neighbors had gathered in front of the houses, we saw muddy waters quietly flooding the street, nothing alarming, atleast at that point of time...Just as all the elders, children and the rest of us could get our bearings, we realized that the road which led out from our street and away from the sea, was flooded with enough water to make crossing it, a difficult task for ladies and children....Having our only 'escape' route cut off, we took refuge in the neighbors' building, first on the ground floor, then as the water level increased, onto the first floor and then onto the second floor which housed nothing but the water tanks...Now, the seriousness of the situation was getting to us...
...By this time, the confusion of thoughts,voices and people kept increasing. The scenario was changing almost every second, but somehow while recollecting, it always seems to move in slow-motion, making it that much easier to recount it vividly.
As we were thinking of how to cope with this menacing situation, we looked up to see this huge wall of water coming towards us... over the palm trees...and even from the second floor where we were standing, i remember we were looking right up to see this colossal wall of water gushing towards us...the noise was deafening, and somehow the whole scene seemed to be like a nightmare in a sci-fi movie...totally unreal.
I and my husband put our daughter between us, and held on to the water tank…Some instinct made me hold my ten-year old daughter's nightie with one hand while with the other I held on to the water tank...seeing the gigantic wall of water move as if in slow motion towards us, my only thought at that time was 'this is how everything's going to end'...
It was only later I heard the term Tsunami for the first time in my life. The intense magnitude of the earthquake triggered it and all the reports I read later termed it the worst ever natural disaster.
The last thing I remember standing there was something hitting my face and then black out...When I regained consciousness, I realized that i was still holding on to my daughter and we both were tumbling like rag dolls in a giant washing machine. Even now i can't comprehend what miraculous power held us together like that against the mighty and turbulent ocean. As i felt the intensity of being thrown around, reduce, I somehow, gathered enough stamina and grabbed at a tree root with the other hand. At that moment, all i could think of was, to somehow push my daughter out of the water, so she could breathe. We both were still under water and i was losing my strength very fast...It also crossed my mind, that if i let my daughter go, probably her chances of survival maybe better...but, i dont know, what made me hold on to her and grabbing what seemed like the last iota of strength i pushed her up so she could get out of the water and breathe...I was losing my consciousness again, but managed to pull myself out of the water too, clinging on to the tree roots and still clutching my daughter..As we both now clung on to the roots, the wrath of the ocean subsided slowly...
My husband escaped equally miraculously holding on and staying afloat with the help of an empty gas cylinder, probably from one of our houses, which collapsed like a pack of cards when the wall of water hit them. Luckily, he got pushed on to the safer ground before us.
It was only later when we both recounted our experiences, we realized that he never lost consciousness and could see us a couple of times, being tossed around in the distance...the anxiety and apprehension he must have suffered till he found us...i think words often fail us to describe these feelings.
In this day and age of logic and reasoning for everything, our near-death experience and survival are difficult to explain. What were the chances of our survival that day…I wouldn’t think there were any…but survive we did, battered and bruised, but atleast as a family…we were alive… Seeing so many families disintegrate in moments, we can’t but thank whatever Power there is which protected us, which held us together, which brought all three of us back alive.
There is no doubt, that God was with us that day…in the grip of my hand as I held on to my daughter, in the form of that uprooted tree roots, which we clung to, in the form of that empty gas cylinder, which helped my husband stay afloat…And just in case we didn’t ‘see’ His helping hands…He was in the form of the Bhagvad Gita, which we found in the rubble of our house…He was in the form of the fragile glass Ganesha which survived the onslaught, and to think that I preserved it in layers of cotton fearing it would break at the mere touch of hands….Probably to show us that He is looking after us…That His hands were and are still holding us…That come what may, His grace is far greater and powerful than all adversities, that “If God be with us, who can be against us….”
The 2004 Tsunami was, I think beyond words for those of us who were unfortunate enough to experience it and fortunate enough to be alive to recount it...
At that time we were in Carnicobar, an island, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The place was breathtakingly beautiful and the turquoise blue-green sea and the white sandy beaches always made me pause and think how beautiful the surroundings were. More often than not, we tend to get caught up in our day to day activities and forget to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us...luckily, we didn't fall into that trap. Every evening we'd go out and enjoy the blue sea and the white beaches, which were just a stone's throw away from our quarters. I always found watching the waves very enjoyable, ...very serene...something very calming and soothing about their back and forth movement...To think that it would all change one morning...
26th of December didn't start like other days for any of us. Before we could even wake up from our Sunday morning slumber, the violent earthquake rudely shook us awake. I had never experienced an earthquake before, and I was shocked at its intensity...Only later we were to know, that it was one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history...It was with great difficulty that I and my husband literally dragged our daughter out of the house...The floor was moving and when I recounted it later, I would always compare it to crossing two compartments in a train, where the plates keep shaking....Terra Firma was no longer a firm holding ground.
We walked out of our home in our night clothes, still reeling under the shock of the earthquake, to find our neighbors equally dazed and confused. By the time all our neighbors had gathered in front of the houses, we saw muddy waters quietly flooding the street, nothing alarming, atleast at that point of time...Just as all the elders, children and the rest of us could get our bearings, we realized that the road which led out from our street and away from the sea, was flooded with enough water to make crossing it, a difficult task for ladies and children....Having our only 'escape' route cut off, we took refuge in the neighbors' building, first on the ground floor, then as the water level increased, onto the first floor and then onto the second floor which housed nothing but the water tanks...Now, the seriousness of the situation was getting to us...
...By this time, the confusion of thoughts,voices and people kept increasing. The scenario was changing almost every second, but somehow while recollecting, it always seems to move in slow-motion, making it that much easier to recount it vividly.
As we were thinking of how to cope with this menacing situation, we looked up to see this huge wall of water coming towards us... over the palm trees...and even from the second floor where we were standing, i remember we were looking right up to see this colossal wall of water gushing towards us...the noise was deafening, and somehow the whole scene seemed to be like a nightmare in a sci-fi movie...totally unreal.
I and my husband put our daughter between us, and held on to the water tank…Some instinct made me hold my ten-year old daughter's nightie with one hand while with the other I held on to the water tank...seeing the gigantic wall of water move as if in slow motion towards us, my only thought at that time was 'this is how everything's going to end'...
It was only later I heard the term Tsunami for the first time in my life. The intense magnitude of the earthquake triggered it and all the reports I read later termed it the worst ever natural disaster.
The last thing I remember standing there was something hitting my face and then black out...When I regained consciousness, I realized that i was still holding on to my daughter and we both were tumbling like rag dolls in a giant washing machine. Even now i can't comprehend what miraculous power held us together like that against the mighty and turbulent ocean. As i felt the intensity of being thrown around, reduce, I somehow, gathered enough stamina and grabbed at a tree root with the other hand. At that moment, all i could think of was, to somehow push my daughter out of the water, so she could breathe. We both were still under water and i was losing my strength very fast...It also crossed my mind, that if i let my daughter go, probably her chances of survival maybe better...but, i dont know, what made me hold on to her and grabbing what seemed like the last iota of strength i pushed her up so she could get out of the water and breathe...I was losing my consciousness again, but managed to pull myself out of the water too, clinging on to the tree roots and still clutching my daughter..As we both now clung on to the roots, the wrath of the ocean subsided slowly...
My husband escaped equally miraculously holding on and staying afloat with the help of an empty gas cylinder, probably from one of our houses, which collapsed like a pack of cards when the wall of water hit them. Luckily, he got pushed on to the safer ground before us.
It was only later when we both recounted our experiences, we realized that he never lost consciousness and could see us a couple of times, being tossed around in the distance...the anxiety and apprehension he must have suffered till he found us...i think words often fail us to describe these feelings.
In this day and age of logic and reasoning for everything, our near-death experience and survival are difficult to explain. What were the chances of our survival that day…I wouldn’t think there were any…but survive we did, battered and bruised, but atleast as a family…we were alive… Seeing so many families disintegrate in moments, we can’t but thank whatever Power there is which protected us, which held us together, which brought all three of us back alive.
There is no doubt, that God was with us that day…in the grip of my hand as I held on to my daughter, in the form of that uprooted tree roots, which we clung to, in the form of that empty gas cylinder, which helped my husband stay afloat…And just in case we didn’t ‘see’ His helping hands…He was in the form of the Bhagvad Gita, which we found in the rubble of our house…He was in the form of the fragile glass Ganesha which survived the onslaught, and to think that I preserved it in layers of cotton fearing it would break at the mere touch of hands….Probably to show us that He is looking after us…That His hands were and are still holding us…That come what may, His grace is far greater and powerful than all adversities, that “If God be with us, who can be against us….”
Comments
I sent you my response. But I made a mistake in the syntax. You have foregrounded your husband. I thought modern women writers keep them tugged to their pallu.
However, let me retype my responses. It is well described so as to bring out the shock, agony and fortunate relief at last. You may perhaps adda picture of Lord Ganesha out of the wool. He definitely saved you and the family to get back to your second lives. Yes. You must make the best of this re-birth by writing and publishing more and more. Never look back or become sort of ' disappointed ' in initial success or failure. Remember what Kipling said abut Success and Failure. They are two sides of the same coin and they complement one another.My humble suggestion would be to encourage you send it to The Readers Digest (INDIA) or RD (US). Good Luck for your continued successes. My best Wishes to your Daughter. Does she also write so well as you do? Encore!