It was one of those idyllic Saturday mornings which our university students enjoy thanx to the official two day weekend. Especially in Ramadhan it gives us the luxury of being up till Sehri and then sleeping off the whole day.

Having slept the morning after Sehri and watching The Daily Show with John Stewart on CNN and Hard Talk Extra on BBC simultaneously, the day had started on a very intellectually delighting note.

I was jolted out of deep slumber by the tremors .I jumped on my feet at once fighting off the giddiness while coping with the trembling ground and the furniture around me. I quickly rushed outdoors along with my mother, whom I had spotted in front of the TV frozen with shock.

The recurring thoughts about damage caused to the people I know was quite disturbing. More disturbing were the thoughts about people having to rebuild their lives from scratch in a country already hit by increasing energy prices and corrupt and ineffective administrations. With a disturbed mind set we went back indoors to experience some minimal tremors which I dismissed as my imagination more than anything else.

It was the first time in life that I had experienced and earthquake of such magnitude. In March 2002, I was studying for my Maths exam on the following day when I experienced light tremors and noticed the ceiling fan rattling. I was in United Arab Emirates then. Surprisingly no one acknowledged the the quakes in next day newspapers and there were no reports about it on the TV since no one could believe that there could be a quake in the Middle East. It took two days for the news about the tremors to be published in the newspapers.

I remember the devastating earthquake in Gujrat, India few years back .Some Non resident Indians took offs from their work and went back home to become part of the rescue work.. Most of the Indian stores started campaigns of generating funds for the relief work.

As I write this I just experienced the ground shaking beneath my feat and I can see the chandeliers quivering. I hope that we escape through this calamity unscathed. Some questions however still linger.
Why wasn