THAT’S LIFE Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy
The family pets started barking, as if they were giving a warning in advance about an impending danger ….
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Waking up from her afternoon nap, Subhashree stared at the visuals on TV and came to know about the devastation in Nepal. The monstrous earthquake has set off a dance of death and destruction. She also read news briefs flashed on the screen that the quake had its impact down here too. Really, she asked her husband Monoranjan.
Subhashree noticed that her husband was busy packing his bags. It meant that, all of a sudden, he was planning to go to some distant place. Looking at the mirror and straightening her tresses, she asked him, “Have you gone mad or what? What are you upto?”
“Didn’t you watch TV? And you are asking me such silly questions! You never see the good side of me. Instead of praising me for my preparedness, you are simply shooting through your mouth!” An irritated Monoranjan reacted.
“Everywhere there are three heated topics of discussion — the earthquake, the NabaKalebara and a farmer’s suicide. How am I concerned,” Subhashree retorted while offering a cup of tea to her husband.
“Now you know why this emergency bag is being packed with so many bizarre items. I call it EQ bag,” Monoranjan enlightened his wife while sipping the tea she gave him.
Subhashree got nervous. It never struck her that in spite of the status and type of jobs, everyone would be the same and have to sleep under the sky or inside a torn tent or a Neem tree if and when an earthquake strikes a region. Government or NGO aid may or may not reach the victims. Robbers, crooks and thieves would be on an overdrive. Police and other organisations would be busy protecting VIPs and rescuing VVIPs during emergency operations. That will be their first priority.
Thinking of sleeping in open fields with unknown people, stray dogs and cows would be too much for a well-off woman. Where could she find a commode, a dressing table? She came to her senses. She could realize that her husband, after all, is an intelligent man. He was always ahead of time.
Subhashree reached up to the dressing table, took a perfume bottle, a tin of talcum powder, her deodorant spay, a comb and a small mirror, and asked her husband to pack them too for her. “Take care,” she told him.
“Only emergency things, dear! It will be too heavy otherwise. No one is going to look at your face in an earthquake devastated land.” Monoranjan replied to her with a wry smile, and turned his face from her.
Two hunch bags were packed separately — one for Subhashree and the other for Dr Monoranjan. “Your bag would contain two cotton sarees, one khordha gamcha, the Aadhaar card, two packets of biscuits, one large-size sliced bread, some chuda, plantains, one knife, toothpaste, comb, a toilet soap, one mug, one bottle of water, one thick bedsheet, your mobile, your spects, two old salwars and your Ganesh idol, right?”
Dr. Monoranjan kept some emergency medicines, Odomos, and a few sleeping pills for his wife and himself. His EQ Bag was also packed with a money purse with ID card, a torch, chuda, mudhi, nimki, bread, a bottle of vodka, a steel glass, and one Pepsi bottle, a bed sheet, a towel and two shirts and a set of pants.
In case a quake occurs, it would take a day or two for rescue teams to come to people’s help. Rescue teams will, in all probability, wait for the quake to subside, and stir out only when they are sure of their own safety. So, this much is a must, Monoranjan convinced himself.
“What about my gold ornaments and silk saree? Will they not supply us with dalma plate for free?” Subhashree was getting more and more concerned.
“You can wear your silk saree all the time. You can even wear two of them at a time. No problem. But gold is risky, forget about it. If quake hits our house, we have to run out along with our dogs and the EQ bags, and then the rest is destiny.” Monoranjan said so in one breath.
“More quakes or aftershocks are possible,” a TV alert said.
Subhashree looked more disturbed but tried to put on a brave front. “I don’t get too much worried about what you call super cyclones or earthquakes. Silly! What should happen will happen. Why get depressed? We have lived enough!”
The family pets started barking, as if they were giving a warning in advance about an impending danger. Subhashree and her husband edged closer to their EQ bags as the pets kept barking.
