Tremor!

There lived a lady Aisha, who was a sincere daughter, a caring wife, and a lovely mother! She was also a great teacher and taught students in higher classes. She was truly multi-tasking: handling her daily chores; teaching her students and taking care of her son and grandma. She lived in Gujarat and worked in a prestigious school. 

It was the day of 26 January 2001, which means Republic Day! It was a holiday of course. She was sitting on her bed with a pile of notebooks beside her and a red pen in her hand; checking the notebooks! All of a sudden the beds seemed to be shaking. "Ugh, how dare these monkeys to even get under my bed!" she exclaimed in disgust as many a times monkeys caused a lot of trouble to her. She shifted to another sofa beside which her baby was sleeping calmly on his cradle. She again started checking the notebooks when the sofa also quivered. She was literally sick of this and checked underneath the furniture. Shockingly nothing was to be seen. She couldn't figure out exactly what was happening. Also, no one was with her, making her afraid! 

Gradually, she went out to check if something was wrong. What she saw scared her the most!!

The swing was swaying in the air freely without anyone sitting on it. The winds weren't also so strong to move the swings at such a rate. If at all there is a storm, the swing doesn't move much, just a little, more often. It seemed as if the swing was crying because of its loud creaks, never as before. 

Aisha's heart had sunk into her stomach. She couldn't decide her next step. It was like a horror movie going on in front of her eyes. She also had two people at home to take care of! 

Unexpectedly, she realized that it could be... the unpredictable and uninvited guest from nature's abode~

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Aisha ran inside her house, took her baby and grandma, rescuing them! The tremors remained for about 2 minutes yet no severe damage was caused as the city they lived in was quite far from the actual epicenter. You must be wondering what happened in the epicenter. If you're a general knowledge enthusiast, you must be knowing about the epicenter!

Yes, the epicenter was Bhuj! The earthquake there was of 7.7 magnitudes on the Richter scale. Drastic destruction was caused due to it. 

Aisha's brother and sister-in-law along with their children lived in Bhuj. Thankfully her sister-in-law and kids had come to her city at that time, hence were totally fine. But what about the brother?!

Bhuj POV- Her brother woke up and got ready in the morning for his office. He went downstairs (since they lived in an apartment) and instead of directly going to the office, his plan changed to first go to the temple near their house. He went there and worshipped the deity after which he started to perform the Circumambulation (Parikrama), a Hindu ritual. He felt some tremors but didn't pay much attention to them. When he came out of the temple, he heard an extremely loud thud, further followed by a series of cacophony. What he saw made him rooted to the spot! He saw his 10th floor flat transforming into the ground floor. Even though he was kind of safe, he lost his valuable asset- his home. 

This story gives us a slight glimpse of high magnitude earthquakes and their tribulations. It is based on true incidents.