The deafening roar

January 26, 2001.

A sound like thunder woke me, and I opened my eyes inside the comforter. I’d been dozing. This sound was surprisingly quite loud, and seemed to be coming from a far distance. I’d never heard thunder this loud before, and there was something different about it but I couldn’t tell what.

The sound was not stopping, but getting louder and louder. In my groggy state I thought that lightning had struck somewhere nearby.

Pulling my head out from under the comforter I looked toward the window covered with curtains. It seemed as if it had gotten cloudy outside, making the room suddenly darker, while the very loud rumbling continued to build.

Maybe it’s not thunder. Someone upstairs is moving heavy equipment.

But I realized that was not right either, and the sound became a roar.

Bombs? What if Pakistan has attacked India on the Republic Day? Bhuj was not far from the border.

Was that a crane? Some heavy machinery? No. What was it? Hundreds of thoughts came to my mind within the first few seconds. I had never heard anything like it before. All I could think of was thunder, but I knew that was not it. Before I could take the next breath, the floor began to shake, the bed shook up and down, and the dresser and mirror rattled against the wall.

Earthquake!

The shaking grew more fierce, the intensity mounting exponentially by the second, and the roar was now even louder.

My bed, along with everything else in the room, was now shaking wildly, nearly tossing me out and to the floor. A large and heavy metal cupboard wobbled and tilted and scraped its way across the floor.

RUN TO SAFETY. GET EVERYONE OUT. . .

Before I could complete that thought, the shaking started to throw everything into the air. I, my bed, the metal cupboard, the dresser—all of it was now slamming against the floor and being thrown back up in the air in an enormously wild and jarring motion. From all around I could hear glass shattering, and the sound of kitchen utensils clattering to the floor.

Now the deafening and ever-growing rumble seemed to be coming from right underneath our building, and just as I thought that it could not get any worse, the shaking became monstrous.

When I looked up, I saw the ceiling fan directly above me swinging crazily in all directions, its metal blades scratching the ceiling. It seemed like it was going to fall any moment. The sound of the ferocious roar seemed like something horrific that wanted to come out of the earth’s crust, and as if a series of enormous explosions were going off underneath the ground.

Kicking off the comforter I tried to get out of the wildly heaving bed. But I couldn’t. I was being tossed like a rag doll.

Suddenly, plastered cement and concrete pieces started falling off the ceiling. I had to get outside the building!

Now the walls started to give way. A six-inch wide crack split the ceiling. Big pieces of plaster started to fall and dust clouds rose. Unable to move, I knew that the ceiling could fall any second. I had never seen anything more dreadful and terrifying in my life.

What was happening to my family?

Just then I heard my mother’s shout from the other room, and felt a surge of anxiety.

Another powerful jolt shook my room and I looked up again— unable to believe what I was seeing. Steel rods inside the ceiling were exposed, twisting and pulling out from the walls, and the whole, huge concrete slab of the floor above me—bigger than a car and weighing tons—cracked before my eyes and started to collapse.

Without thinking I somehow shifted my body, just dodging the slab to avoid being crushed like a bug.

My head struck the headboard of the bed, and before I could think of anything else, the ceiling came down with horrific force.

In an instant, everything became pitch dark and the earth shook with even more fury.

I had no clue exactly what was happening, but there was more rumbling and jolting, as if the whole building—tons of cement and steel—was collapsing on top of me.

Then the shaking was over. Only 15 seconds had passed since I had heard the first thundering sound and opened my eyes.

I shouted as loud as I could.

And in another instant I felt that I was sliding and I knew—the whole building is tilting!