Tsunami

         There was  an undersea mega thrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, 26 December 2004, in the Indian ocean with an epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

         The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake. The resulting tsunami was given various names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, South Asian tsunami, Indonesian tsunami, and the Boxing Day tsunami.

         The earthquake was caused when the Indian Plate was subducted by the Burma Plate and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal communities with the waves up to 30 meters (98 ft) high.

          It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in the recorded history. Indonesia was the hardest-hit country, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

         When this great natural disaster struck the eastern coast of India, I was recovering from a spinal surgery  in a hospital in Mumbai, which is on the western coast of India, My, not yet 17 years old son, had come to visit me in the hospital and was sleeping peacefully in the hostel room of one of the medical residents working under me.

As the great disaster causing  widespread huge devastation struck around 1 am, we all heard about it only in the morning.
I, as a departmental head got busy (even from my sick bed)  to give directions to organize teams of doctors to send for the rescue mission to various states which bordered the affected coast,
My son who was watching the news and the pictures on the television, became so disturbed and  just sat there very dumb. Whole week he was very much disturbed and around 9 pm on 5th Jan 2005,  he put his pen to paper and came out with a  poem.

I am sharing that poem here on WDC for all to appreciate.

26th December 2004

This land ever so violently calm

Quakes sans warning, sans alarm

A crack runs across the earth’s face

The plates battle, the crust displaced.

A huge ripple rushes across the sea

Next moment it surges into a Tsunami

Call it a ripple or call it a surge

Countless lives it did submerge

Villages wrecked, beaches washed away

Below the debris the cadavers lay

Those surviving now witness violent dreams

Echoing everywhere their silent screams

Too far I am on the western coast

To feel the pain on faces with smiles lost

Staring at the TV I'm deaf, blind and dumb.

How I realize now I'm so very numb!

SnehalG