Yesterday being 9/11, I was watching the story behind the tragic event on Discovery,titled 'Inside 9/11'.
The pain,cries of people,debris of tall & elegant buildings brought back to me,memories of a similar dreadful incident,I had been part of.
It was 26th of January 2001,when I was a student of the Dental school.
It being the Republic Day of India,we had a holiday.
Having studied all night till early morning hours,I decided to wake up late that morning.
Around 8:45 a.
m.
my sleep was interrupted by the crackling sounds of the window panes.
I dismissed the idea of something unusual,because my hostel was in close proximity to the international airport.
Each time an aircraft would fly past our hostel,I would hear the window panes clatter,hearing the same,I lazily snuggled inside my warm blanket.
Moments later,I heard a thundering bang at my door,which within seconds was followed by crashing sounds of all the utensils & stationery I had lying on my table.
Disturbed by such annoying noises,I reached to the door.
I cannot forget the shaken and shocked look I saw on my friend's face that morning,as she hurriedly explained,that we've had an earthquake,and I should run immediately to a safe place,before the next tremor shook us.
An earthquake? I was so horrified that I could feel hair raise to a goose flesh on the nape of my neck.
I literally froze in horror, when my friend jolted me and pulled me along to run along with her.
My room was on the third floor of the old hostel building.
The stairway was packed,the whole environment was full of tension,panic and screams.
In the meantime, we ran over the lobby to check all rooms,if anyone was left uninformed.
Luckily, there wasn't anyone left behind.
As we started descending down the steps managing to make way,we again felt the building shake.
Frightened by the tremors,it took seconds to create confusion,chaos and resulted in a stampede.
We were lucky, that the tremors lasted only a couple of seconds this time.
When things got still,people at the bottom of the stairway somehow managed to get things in control and help the students injured in the stampede.
It was a day of horror,when I had been lucky,for the the moment I stepped out of the hostel premises, a big boulder fell from the top floor,landing hardly five inches from where I stood.
Uttering countless prayers,we fled to the nearby playground.
The sounds of ambulance sirens,cries of people,sight of injury,bleeding wounds and debris of buildings all over haunted me for weeks after the actual day.
Each time I would close my eyes to sleep,I would feel the tremors I had felt on 26th of January.
The sight of videos of 9/11 not only refreshed my memory of the earthquake in Ahmedabad,but I noted a striking similarity between the two events.
The earthquake of 26/01/2001 in Ahmedabad ( India) and the first attack of 9/11 both took place at 8:45 a.
m.
the same year.