Of Nature and Winds....

Am back home after a long while,been having my exams,24 days at the hostel in Durgapur,the thought was unbearable at first,and on top of that my best friends were here for the summer....
26th of May,the day started pretty normally except for the clouds in the sky.And then started the rain,which just went on and on.The whole evening we remained drowned in darkness,save the faint shimmerings from our cellphones.The weather remained sultry all day. We'd already started our exams,the practicals. On that day itself i had had my Analog Electronics practicals,got drenched while coming back from the college.Next Day it was Debmallya da's Lab,Instrumentation.Mum called up and said the weather had worsened over time,trees had fallen all over the city,streets flooded,and people were saying this was the worst storm Calcutta had ever seen.In Durgapur,it seemed okay,no trees were falling as far as i could see,but the rain was incessant,Andy went out in that rain and wind to get a pack of cigarettes,n came back drenched yet victorious..... :)
The Night started to pass amidst faint cellphone lights and candles,the current came back once or twice but never stayed.When i went to sleep that night,it was the first time i experienced something new.something that i had only heard of or read before-the whistling and howling of the wind.I have seen it on television,in cartoons,when there is a strong wind blowing,it was exactly that same kind of noise.....the rain had lessened by then. And when i woke up next morning,the skies had cleared. Then came the newspaper reports.....it had been a cyclone,named Aila(God knows why!!).Sunderbans had been washed away almost,submerged under saline water. We had felt almost nothing,the embankments there had been washed away,people had died.And even after one week,the newspapers were reporting of the lackadaisical approach by the Government of ours....there was little relief provided to those people who had lost so much.
Thus was my first experience of a cylcone.Aila.Yet from my mum n dad I had heard of a different kind.But i have to keep in mind the geographical differences.Mum and dad used to live in HongKong in the eighties,in a building on the 23rd floor.I remember one of them telling me of a cyclone experience where they had had to stay indoors for 2 or 3 days,with howling winds,vibrating furniture all around.I am glad my first experience wasn't the same. But I will pray for all those affected by Aila,and encourage everyone reading this to do so. :)