A ring, a ring
o’roses,
A pocket full
o’posies-
Atishoo atishoo
we all fall down
Fellow
Toastmasters and guests,
That was me
singing the nursery rhyme in the campfire with my 2 year old daughter.
It was Dec 28th
2011, 7.30 pm I was having a delicious gourmet dinner with my family members in
a well decorated glassy restaurant with a spectacular beach view in Club
Mahindra resort.
Fun, blustering
music [body gestures – closing the ear with face expression] were the language
of the evening during our Christmas and New Year holidays.
Next day around 12.30
am in the midnight, I woke up suddenly by a whistling noise [Body language]. It
was none other than the “Thane” cyclone and we were right in Pondicherry.
As the time
passed by, the intensity of the cyclone increased. We were advised to remain in the room. Sudha and I were seeing the horror of the
cyclone from our glass view beach resort.
Fear of death came to my mind for the first time in my life.
Suddenly we
heard a cracking noise from the roof.
The asbestos of our room’s roof flew off. We were stunned. As the water started
dripping from the roof, I quickly moved my father to the other side of the room.
That was when the whole false ceiling came crashing down. Half the roof was on our bed. We were all
huddled up in a corner.
That is when I decided
to rush out of the room. Holding my younger daughter on one and my father on
the other hand we slowly and carefully came out of the room. My wife and elder daughter went ahead of
us. The wind speed was so much that it
was trying to pull us away [Body Language]
My father’s
spectacle few away in no time and disappeared.
We slowly came down to the ground floor. I was shocked to death as I
could not see my wife and daughter who left a little while ago. I was desperately searching for them for some
time… Suddenly a door opened in the back and my wife came out. Thank god, I was quite relieved.
Apparently, she
got down and knocked the door of the ground floor guest in the middle of the
night and sought their help.
We were much
safer in the ground floor room. Slowly, the whole room was filled with water. Our
family and ground floor guy’s family got adjusted in one king size bed (4
adults and 4 Kids).
After 10 hours
of massive disaster, it slowed down. Just
like the rhyme, the roof of the first floor had completely fallen down. [Voice
modulation – talk slowly]
I approached the
restaurant where we had dinner the previous night. All the glasses were smashed everywhere. The whole resort was unmercifully crucified
by Thane.
We all moved to
the conference hall which was the only safe place that had power.
I would say it
was a 5 star refugee camp as we had been provided with food, tea, coffee and
place to sit.
I was totally upset
as the complete property was devastated.
I was empathizing with the resort manager. He said, “it took them four years to build
everything which blew away in few hours”.
All the well maintained plants and trees were blown away. The nature hunt trail which we went the
previous day was horribly hunted by the nature.
It was sorry
state of affairs. Most of the people were selfish but for a few.
One guy
approached the resort manager and asked “would you be giving the letter for
insurance claims”
Other old aged
woman started applying foundation and mascara as she was so bored.
For the first
time in 10 years, I did not see anything talking on cell phone. Then I realized
all the towers were gone.
All roads were
blocked as the transformer and trees fell down and the roads were cleared by
the evening and we all came back to Chennai.
Anything
could’ve happened on that day but luckily there were no casualties.. Thank god.
While driving
back from the resort, a thought was lingering in my mind.
It was the first
time for me and I happened to be at the resort.
What happened to those have-nots and fisher men at Pondy and Cuddalore
who face this horrible cyclone year after year.
I don’t have an
answer? Do you?
Over to you
TMOD.
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