Wednesday, January 19, 2011

New Hindi Word

2 am, Jan 19, 2011,  Barmer, Rajasthan
I just learnt a new Hindi word: Bhukamp
It means earthquake.
5 minutes before my neighbours told me this word, I was fast asleep. My bed woke me, it was shaking back and forth. I woke instantly with full alertness and felt the whole building shaking. I headed to go get Mike up (he had just arrived the evening before) but then shaking stopped.  I heard the sounds of voices on the street and decided to let Mike sleep and went out. The whole neighbourhood was out, lights were on all over, dogs were barking. That’s when I learnt my new word.

Ok, for those of you who are thinking, well it’s a good thing he’s shortly leaving that area and heading off to China, reconsider: the area I’m going to, Chengdu, Sichuan is a earthquake zone. A few years ago 69,000 + people died 80 kilometres away in Wenchuan County where the building codes were not to earthquake standards as in Chengdu. Feel better now?

 


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