'Aila' ala re !!!

Ever since my childhood days i had been fascinated by stories of cyclone that my mother experienced when she used to live in Bangladesh in her childhood days. I always wanted to experience a cyclone myself... finally had my wish fulfilled rather harshly this afternoon.

Boy i have never seen anything like this ever in my life - one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had. I woke up to find the gloomy sky and going by the wind speed in the morning i always could guess what was about to come by afternoon.

1040 hrs : mother leaves for her office. Father and aunt at elder sis’ place in Mumbai – so i’m home alone !!! I’m watching my favourite “South Park”.

1130 hrs : power cut ! wind speeds
about 70 – 90 kmh as forecast by the met department. I can almost feel the entire house quivering. A veteran of many severe kalbaishakhis, i had never heard such howling sound in a wind ever before. I’m just moving to and from room to room ensuring all windows and doors are sealed properly. Then it’s time to bring out my sweetheart – my DSC H50. Started clicking randomly determined to keep an indelible mark of my first cyclone experience.

1150 hrs : a glass from a window in between
the 1st and the 2nd floor has fallen off on the street and cracked – thankfully no one is hurt (all over Kolkata are were several incidents of pedestrians falling victim to such cracking glass). I rush to the spot – wind and rain begin to gush through the opening. Time to undertake my 1st mission – plugging the opening. After about 20 minutes its mission accomplished. (In the meanwhile i continue clicking at random.)

1320 hrs : rainwater from the roof has seeped in from under door and the 2nd floor is partially flooded. Its time for mission # 2 – build a mechanism to prevent it from happening any further.
After about 25 minutes and at the expense of few pieces of cloth and two big rectangular blocks of spare marble it’s mission accomplished (this really made me feel so proud since i spend a normal day at home doing nothing but sitting with my computer all day long – getting up only to fulfil certain necessities :D). I have finally done some profitable work for my home (to mitigate the boredom created from the power situation ;))

1440 hrs : Lunch time ! still no sign of power restoration ! :’(

1500 hrs : it’s not raining any more but wind speed at about 90 – 100 kmh (informed by my father who’s tracking the cyclone situation from Mumbai through Bengali news channels). Let it be 90 or 100 – chhera gelo. I decide to quickly climb to the topmost point of the roof and take more pictures. Believe me - nature has never looked so beautiful during a storm. I normally manage to get steady shots without placing the camera on ground – but today is different. The problem is that i cant keep it on ground either ‘coz it’s not staying still. :( Determined, I decide to take the steadiest shot i’ve ever taken and i succeed (hooray).

1600 hrs : i have nothing to do. I decide to take full advantage of vodafone’s free sms scheme – i start sms-ing my friends and they duly replied. This sms game continues till 1800 hrs.
Camera’s battery needs to be charged but there’s no electricity... so, photography is no longer an option against boredom.

2000 hrs : mother at home. Power is restored for 5 minutes only after which it’s back to darkness. :( Its dark outside and the howling of the wind, rustling of the leaves, audible treading of the shoes provide the perfect ambience for a classic horror flick. I’m loving it !

2130 hrs : power restored successfully. Now i can finally charge my laptop and get back on the internet.

Surely, i’ll never forget this day in a lifetime. I’ll always remember the sounds and images of ‘Aila’ that haunted me for almost 10 hrs.

Asked to write an essay on courage a student at the Oxford University left 3 empty pages, winding up his efforts with a one liner, “this is courage!”.
In his book “Our Social World”, Don Forsyth describes – “an attitude is not a feeling, a cognition, or a form of behaviour; instead, attitudes combine all three components in an "integrated affect-cognition-behaviour system””.
Attitude is an explicit reflection of one’s personality. Attitude projects a person’s perspective on issues in a subtle way. As individuals we are bound by our personal goals. There are two approaches two start working on a goal – either review historical approaches and follow the treaded path or else work your way through the goal, projecting the individual : “you” rather than “they” ! A goal can be half-attained in the mind. It’s the fresh approach that matters because the world is yet to witness it. Attitude has a great advantage that it cannot be measured directly, so no one can dictate attitude. Attitude is nascent in every man. Gandhi had a whole new attitude of Non Violence, Mandela symbolises equality, Ali “floated like a butterfly and stung like bee”. Attitude can never fail, it can only be put to further scrutiny.
Attitude is not strictly “defiance”. Attitude is modified mental approach to a tested action. In a world where competition is cutthroat, there can be no better way of mental evaluation than getting a picture of the individual attitude. Attitude is the driving force behind change. Attitude is a window to the human intent.
Attitude can change anything !


- Somnath Sarkar