Weather

Last night I woke up to an earthquake. Guwahati must be on a fault line, because I’ve experienced more earthquakes here in the past six weeks (three, to date) than I have ever before in my lifetime. This most recent event lasted longer than the others. At 1:30AM it shook me awake, I quickly came to my senses, got up and headed to my bedroom doorway. I stood there for a good 15-20 seconds as the building and walls around me shook in slow, deliberate jolts. Then, I heard and watched this force of nature move to the other side of my room by the window, where it continued for another 10 seconds. Mother Nature continued her fury into the depths of the night as monsoon rains began several minutes later, and have continued on and off today.

Perhaps because it feels slower than expected, I’ve never felt scared in an earthquake. Just curious. The other two incidents here in Guwahati were both during waking hours – during dinner my second night of arrival in Assam, and on a Saturday while working in our office a few weeks back. It is exciting to experience these phenomena, but at the same time I feel a pang of guilt for enjoying the heavy rain and quakes from the safety of this solid dormitory. Others face these things head on and suffer from the after-effects, in particular, the heavy flooding which has destroyed thousands of homes and forced families to abandon their possessions and migrate to higher ground, pitching makeshift tents on the side of the road.

Photos below: Flood affected areas in Morigaon