My experience with the Big One!!!

11th March, Friday, 02:36PM

It was Friday and an officially day-off for me. So I had had a lazy morning and got up at around 1 in the noon (don't go into the details of my sleeping habits). I was hungry so I started cooking something for myself (yeah, no kidding!). Just when I was done, I could feel the floor moving slightly. For a second I thought maybe I am still not completely out of my sleep but soon realized that it’s an earthquake!

Now for the starters, earthquake in Japan is as common a thing as a cricket match between India and Sri Lanka. They keep happening from time to time and nobody gives a damn (unless its a world cup final). So when I knew that it’s an earthquake, I took it very lightly at first. I thought it's just one of those usual ones and will stop within seconds. But to my surprise it didn't. It just kept on shaking and getting bigger and bigger every second. I was hardly able to stand still, forget walking. Things started falling from shelf and whole house started rocking. Never before had I seen something like this in my life. I still had faith in Japanese architects and engineers that nothing would happen but didn't want to take any chances. So I ran out of my flat for the stairs. At the stairs I saw couple of Japanese construction workers. One of them was scared to death. I could see the fear on his face and that's when I was sure that this was something big. Even the Japanese people are worried! Just when I was about to go down it stopped. Everything was calm again so I ran back to my room to get in touch with my friends and colleagues. The phone lines were down but fortunately the internet was still up and running. I was able to talk to my friends in Tokyo and family back in India.

Just when I thought that everything was back to normal, it started shaking again. Damn it, I was not even able to have my food! This time again it was quite a big one so I grabbed my wallet and ran for my life. I didn't stop at anything and went straight to the ground floor. I saw lot of people gathered outside the building. There was a group of Indian women with their kids and bags. It looked as if they are all set to head back to India at that very moment! I waited for everything to cool down, grabbed a nice cup of coffee and spent some time alone sitting on a bench and reliving those moments. Sitting there it still felt as if the land was floating on top of flowing lava.

Later, I thought of taking a stroll and see what the situation elsewhere was. I reached the railway station and saw some unbelievable scenes out there. The train lines were down so people were queuing up for the buses and the taxis. There were long queues for bus, taxi and outside the phone booths. But surprisingly there was no chaos whatsoever. People let others finish with their calls and waited for their chance patiently. One more unbelievable and incomprehensible scene was that there was a long queue outside a gaming parlour!! As most of the train lines went down, that night people had to walk as far as 15-20kms back home. My friend/roommate had to walk around 10kms before he could get a train back home.

There was no major damage reported due to the earthquake and the credit for this goes to the architects and their technology behind this. But it was really scary and heartbreaking to see the havoc caused by the subsequent tsunami. The horrific scenes of villages getting swept off by water was something never before seen and we hope that we don’t have to see it again.

The interview that never got aired. Perhaps!

Everybody, agree or not, have a hidden dream of seeing themselves on the television someday. But then there are conditions attached to it. It has to be an appearance where people admire you or complement you for and not one where you end up being nothing but a laughing stock. One such incident happened with me which I would like to share with all of you.

This was during the whole earthquake and radiation episode in Japan. I was at the international airport (Narita) in Tokyo. There was panic everywhere amongst the foreigners and everyone was flying back to their respective homeland. I was one of them! The airport was very crowded that day with thousands of passengers standing in queues to check-in for their flights. Trust me I had never seen any airport so crowded ever before. All the flights were running full or rather flying full. I guess the airline carriers might have even added few extra seats to their planes just like Indian Railways adds extra coaches to their trains.

So just like everyone else there, I was also standing in a queue waiting to check-in to my flight. I was chatting with a Chinese guy in front of me increasing his knowledge about India, when I saw a crew of a reporter (with a mic in his hand) and a cameraman.  They were Indians and guess which channel they were from. INDIA TV!!!! I came to know by the logo on the mic. Can you imagine an India TV reporter right in front of you at an airport in Japan!! These guys were telecasting the situation in Japan after the radiation leak and were interviewing random people at the airport.

I just happened to glance at the reporter, when he saw me and came towards me. Trust me the words that popped into my mind at that time were “Damn! Why the heck did I look at him!?” As he was walking towards me, he started speaking in the typical India TV style:

“Aur ye hum dekh sakte hai ek Bhartiya chehra. Aaiye hum inse puchte hai.” (There were hundreds of Indian faces there. Don’t know why he thought I was the only one!?)

Reporter: “Kya aap vapas jaa rahe hai?”

Me: “Yes I am travelling back to India.” (otherwise why would I be at the airport and stand in a queue!)

Reporter: “Kya aap darr ke maare wapas India jaa rahe hai?”

Me (shocked but controlled myself): “Ji nahi. Mera Japan me kaam khatam ho chuka hai is liye main wapas jaa raha hu.”

All this time the camera seemed to be rolling and I could feel some cheap animated scenes of radiation playing behind me at the background and may be few arrows pointing at my messed up hair saying “Radiations ke wajah se!!!”

Reporter: “Kya apki kisise baat hui?”

Me (genuinely couldn’t understand his question): “Kisse!?”

Reporter: “Kya apki Japani logon se baat hui. Wo kaisa mehsus kar rahe hai?”

Me (trying to look calm): “Everything is normal. Saari offices chal rahi hai. Log roz apne kaam pe jaa rahe hai. There is nothing to worry.”

At this point he realized that am not giving him the content he wants. There is nothing interesting coming out from me which will make people watch their news. So he thought of ending it there.

Reporter: “Ye shaqs to dare hue nahi lag rahe. Aaiye hum aur logo se baat karte hai.” :)

They went ahead and I had a big sigh of relief. Now if the whole thing was not live and just a recording, intended to be telecasted later, then I am damn sure that guy must have erased my interview from the camera (all the time cursing me while doing so!). But if it was all live then am sure nobody in India would have seen it.

Firstly it was on INDIA TV and secondly it must have been 5:30 in the morning in India.

So that was my brief (1 minute) TV interview, which I am glad everyone missed it. This is surely not the kind of dream that I was talking about earlier. But now when I look back, I find it a really funny incident. One I might remember for a very long time!