A week after the earthquake....

The shocking news of our Himalayas shaking and trembling crossed all along the place and reached our ears travelling around 1500km.

It was rather absurd and I wasn't really believing it at one shot. Our friends busy calling at their homes to confirm the news and to make sure everything was alright.

I still lying in bed and waiting for the cellphone to ring and praying god that this all wasn't true. A moment later as news spread about many deaths and the problem reached its peak as evening eclipsed and the phone line was effected due to heavy calls.

You know how it feels like to be far away from home and listen such devastating news about your place and then all you can do is guess and pray that everything is alright with the people at our place.

We ran to the house nearby as there was no television set at our flat which we had rented in the Greater NCR. All the news channel was covering the news but due to the lack of communication they weren't coming to the conclusions about the total number of deaths and injuries.

This increased the tension among us. An hour later we were able to establish communication and were relieved to a little extent that luckily there was no sort of any huge trouble in anyone of our house. But the matter was not just about our home. We were certain that 6.8 magnitude of earthquake wasn't just leaving Sikkim with this little damage.

With the number of deaths and injury rising in every hour or so and the rumors of the earthquake returning has left us with a grief of those who left for heavenly abode with fears in mind that it may return anytime again.

If sources were to be believed, it says that earthquake cannot be predicted. This may[must] be true as if it would have been predicted then so many peaceful lives amidst the peaceful state would have been saved.

The soul-stirring images of our hills in the web and news-papers was more than enough to bring tears in the eyes.

Now, since a week has passed in the hills and everything is slowly returning back to normal, all we can do is pray for all those people who mother earth took away from us and help all those who are in need.

- Amir Bhandari
Soreng, W. Sikkim