The Knowledge That Saved

Aashu was a fourteen years old girl. She was in Puri, Odisha on a holiday trip with her family. The entire family was walking on the beach.  Aashu wanted to visit the beach therefore she was enjoying a lot. Suddenly she noticed something strange. The sea which was calm a while ago started to become rough. The water started bubbling, foaming and sizzling as it was in a frying pan. Moreover, it was slowly moving backwards.  Aashu remembered the symptoms of a tsunami which she had read in a book named,'The oceans of the Earth's. She became terrified. She said to her mother, "mom!there are symptoms of a tsunami. Let's move away from here quickly."   Her mother who had never heard about the tsunami waves before did not pay any heed to Aashu's words.she said, "Aashu!calm down. It's nothing happens."  Aashu became quite upset. She started looking for her father who was relaxing on a chair.

She went to her father and said, "Dad, I am seeing symptoms of a tsunami. Probably there has been an earthquake somewhere in the sea. I am sure that soon some tall and crashing waves will hit the beach. Let's leave the beach and tell everyone to do so."   Aashu's father took her advice seriously. Her family rushed back to their seaside resort and her father informed the hotel staff about the probable tsunami. He requested them to help him in getting the beach vacated. The hotel staff agreed without wasting any time, Aashu's father and the hotel staff headed towards the beach. They used loudspeakers to warn the public. They requested and persuaded people to leave the beach as soon as possible.  By the time the beach was nearly vacated, everybody saw a huge wave at a fair distance in the sea. They all ran towards the upper stories of the resort.  Very soon, three massive waves struck the beach one after another, wiping out everything that came in their way. The waves caused huge destruction of property. However, because Aashu's knowledge and awareness saved many lives. Later everybody thanked Aashu for saving many lives.