I never thought wind could be as powerful as it was on Saturday (13th September, 2008) morning. Wind, air or gust whatever you name it surely had its presence felt and we were all hoping to breathe one more time with adequate air.IKE, the hurricane was on its way to embrace us on Friday night. We had been informed to have everything prepared as Ike was threatening to take over Houston and surroundings. I was told to leave the work on Thursday afternoon itself and learned from the news that evacuation was very much on for southern Houston residents. Evacuation was lingering on my mind for quiet a bit of time, but eventually I decided to stay put. After watching repeated telecast of live hurricane updates umpteen number of times, decided to take a break Friday afternoon. My friends and I walked around apartment complex, just to see the curiosity of the people and get glimpses of the preparations. We even played cricket and cooked some tasty spicy Indian food.
Just to give an idea what we were anticipating at the night, IKE, at 600 miles across, was nearly as big as Texas itself. The storm surge that Ike would create was expected to reach 25ft tall at the coast. The wind speed was estimated to be around 110-125 MPH and Gust speed would be close to 140MPH. It's been a generation since Houston had seen a hurricane of this volume.
Alright back to my story, just when I was getting cozy, as a result of a call from one special person just before, who was excited to convey a message, the power went out. It was 1 AM in the early hrs of sat morning and wind was picking its speed. We lit the candle on and hoped for least possible damage. As we went out to learn the situation, the wind was picking its speed and the rain was pouring cats and dogs. We came back in and watched the clock as the noise of the silence vanished slowly. Wind picked its maximum speed and gusts were blowing hard and strong. The noise of the wind blowing and gust hitting hard on the walls was unfathomably scary. The sound brought me the reminiscence of a hag weeping her black magic tantrums out.
The wind had its own agenda. It would blow hard one moment and would remain quiet another. The intermittent occurrence made the predicament even worse as the noise was significantly perceivable. As wind blew, rain played its part by spraying all around the complex and drenched most of us even though we were standing in the closed corridor. This series of events continued till 7AM in the morning and left me sleepless all through the night.
As the hurricane IKE decided to degrade its intensity I went to bed but woke up sporadically with the noise of ‘hagesque’ IKE. And at around 10AM got a call from India, my dad was on the other side. He listened to the actions that happened, and he briefed about lethal bomb blasts took place in Delhi. It added fuel to my fear and left me cold and disheartened. It was out of the flying pan into the fire situation. I had been longing to listen to one melody.
As I was feeling dismayed, one voice brought me back to the life, and wished me, blessed me and cheered me up to the heights of Everest. I felt like a baby who saw the bright and beautiful world first time, cozily in his mother’s lap as it was my mom’s voice and she said, 'Happy Birthday’.
