The earth, it moved

The American from Taipei was in no doubt that it had been an earthquake. He ‘‘had experienced the tsunami’’ and knew that the tremors which lasted more than two minutes were ‘‘definitely’’ a quake.

Outside on the streets, it was even more scary. People in their nightsuits were running aimlessly. This being the main tourist district of the city, tourists were huddled in groups outside their hotels.

A young Iranian girl had just managed to wrap a bathrobe around herself when her family started pounding on the door. Worried and confused, in broken English, she demanded that the police be called.

The hotel staff were by this time quite shaken up and trying to calm down frayed nerves. They informed us that the quake measured 8.5 on the richter scale. There was stunned silence. The enormity of it was sinking in. Everyone now feared that there may be aftershocks.

I wanted to rush back into the hotel and grab my belongings and the shopping bags in my room. There, for a few fleeting moments, I felt what those other tourists holidaying at the beach resorts when the tsunami struck must have felt — panic, fear and confusion.

Two Marwari businessmen from Calcutta rushed out, barefoot. They were struck by the realisation that they didn’t even have their passports on them. If everything was to come down, nobody would be able to identify them beneath the rubble, they declared. The tall skyscrapers towering over us as we squatted on the sidewalk made this a not improbable predicament.

By one in the morning, tempers were flaring, a hungry baby started wailing. Is it safe to go back inside, someone demanded. The salwar kurta clad lady from Lahore agitatedly told me she had always wanted to visit India.

It was a motley group of people from countries as far away as Taipei and Iran, as unfriendly to each other as India and Pakistan, all sitting out on the pavement together, attired in nightsuits, struck by a common concern. We didn’t bother with niceties such as each other’s names. Out on that pavement, we spoke as one concerned human being to another.

A group of guests, I am told, were in the midst of a drinking session. So when the earthquake occurred, they were in real high spirits. They reacted to it in their inimitable style; they raised a toast to the quake!