To sit atop Seismic Zone V is not, obviously, an easy thing. Even more difficult is to live in this zone, and yet make our city the sixth fastest growing urban space in the country. The two facts , that is, of vulnerability to great seismic events, and of rapid growth and development, have co-existed side by side in ways that echo Japan , perhaps, on the one hand, and California on the other. Of course the scale of development and its parameters are different, but “Great Earthquakes” have always been part of remembered lore in the cultures of all three places.

But surely, the kind of shakes we have been having for a while now must be something unique? Barely a month passes without the ground beneath our feet suddenly deciding to do a jig. Scary, that. Especially if one is asleep, and is awakened abruptly to a quaking and a rumbling….

So how are people coping? Strategies abound, and indeed seem to be quite as many as there are individuals. If one person has Xeroxed all her valuable documents and put them into a safe deposit box in distant, shake-free Mumbai with her brother, another has scanned hers, and put them on the internet. People are memorising the first steps that they must take in any large shake. And no, these first steps do not include hiding under the dining room table.

Why dining room table? Well, for some reason, the advisories given out by our Government through newspapers are all putting a great deal of importance on dining room tables. Take shelter, they tell us, under yours. Apparently they have not heard of glass dining tables. Obviously they would not want us to shelter under all that glass, while brick and mortar fall all around us and the ground does a merry tango. And what happens to those people who sit on wooden piras and eat in the kitchen, as they routinely do in the rural areas of this region?

The thing about earthquakes is that there is no consensus about when, and if, a Big Shake will strike anytime soon. The house of geologists is a divided one on this issue. While some say that these medium sized shakes have dissipated the stress underground, and we are therefore safe, others insist that all this is just a prelude to the Big One.

But social gatherings, as well as online sites such as Facebook, are rife with the worries of people who live here. What will happen if the Shake comes? How big will it be?

Will houses, buildings tumble down?

Will we in the Luit drown?

What if the ground begins to split,

And we find we cannot flit?

Will we do a collective Sita,

Should we start to chant the Gita?

These tremors have a way of happening when they are least expected. That is the only predictable thing about them. And as for those warnings that our pets and birds and other animals are supposed to give us before a shake, forget it! The cats and dogs who live with us, as well as the crows that infest our gardens, have become humanised to such an extent that their antennae have been quite blunted to impending quakes. Our pet dogs have been just as startled as we have been, whenever the quakes have struck. Indeed, some of them have merely rolled over and gone back to sleep, thinking perhaps that the tremors are just their overweight masters making their way to the fridge for a midnight snack. They are so used to the ground shaking beneath their master’s footsteps that the Real Thing leaves them unfazed.

There is a kind of visceral fear in going to sleep, not knowing whether the Big Shake will come while we are dreaming of scoring a century at Lords. Among ladies, obviously, this vulnerability takes on an extra dimension. In this heat, many women wear the scantiest of clothing in the privacy of their bedrooms. Men, who are always less delicate of sensibility than their better halves are, never seem to have any compunctions about rushing out even in their briefs. But women are a different story. They are wondering now if they should go to bed, fully clothed, ready to leap up and dash out at the first shake. But what about the heat? Should we dress for the hot temperatures, or for the sake of modesty? What will the neighbours say if they see us running around in our bikini tops and shorts? What will we say if we see them doing the same?

Sari, trouser, shirt or kurta?

Better make it top-toe burqua.

The myopic people, for whom everything that is a foot beyond their noses is a haze, make up a sizeable portion of any urban population. Among this section of people, the nervousness about an impending quake takes on a different element. So many of us cannot see a thing without our optical aids that one shudders to think what would happen if we have to rush out without them. Many people have taken to going to bed with their spectacles perched on their noses. Obviously this is a highly uncomfortable thing, but what to do, it seems the only available option. And what about those who have contact lenses? There’s a limit to the number of hours one can wear them per day. Besides, opticians advise us against going to sleep with those little plastic discs inserted in our eyes.

Blind as a bat

Like a wet cat

Running through the rain

Stumbling in the drain…

The Great Earthquakes of this region of the past undoubtedly wreaked a great deal of havoc. That was before the advent of multistoreyed buildings in this region. These days, when so much urban growth is vertical, earthquakes make their presence felt quite high above the ground, as well. Those who live in apartments way above ground level, find themselves thinking more and more about the builders of their apartments. Hopefully, he was honest enough to put in the prescribed quantity of cement during construction. Indeed, it is not just those people who live in these apartments who are a nervous lot. Those dwelling in the shadows of these apartments are also an anxious set.

And so I lay me down to sleep

Hoping the earth won’t shake and screech

Will I wake up, squashed and smashed?

Will I greet the dawn, all mashed?

Of course, it’s at these times that all of us remember our Maker. All Things Considered, praying has never been as popular in a long while as it is now. Most people go to bed with a prayer on their lips these days, something that they haven’t done for quite a while.

As a friend said, “Let Go. Let God…”

MITRA PHUKAN