On Wednesday evening around 7.27 pm the wind that had been blowing all day suddenly increased in tempo. My sister heard the wind roar mightily on its way downward toward the town of Kohima. Immediately after that the earthquake descended on us; the old part of my mother’s house which is mostly wood, and part concrete, swayed and rocked for a minute or more. The water which we had collected in sintex containers spilt over from the rocking, and the windows rattled violently. Before the earthquake had subsided, people began to shout in unison, a combined sound of terror and vulnerability.
The epicentre was in Indo-Burma. That was the latest update. Our minds turn to those who have suffered multiple of what we experienced here. It must have felt like the ground beneath their feet was opening up. It is so unnerving to feel the ground beneath one’s feet turn fickle. It is like a deep betrayal.
In pre-Christian times, so great was the fear of natural calamities like earthquakes that members of the village would bring out the lids of their pots and bang on them making a terrible noise to ward off the earthquake. Men alternately shouted, “La! La!” which means “Cease! Cease!” It was addressed to the spirits, the Terhuomia to stop the unnatural behaviour of the natural world. Imagine the complete chaos caused by shouting humans banging on lids, and barking dogs, and crying children and babies. The noise itself would intensify the already present fear of the earthquake.
“The earth too has a spirit of its own,” said a young Naga poet. She narrated this story: Last year a neighbourhood near the Hospital area in Kohima was disturbed by screams and shouts at night. They thought it might be intoxicated young men and took up the matter. But they were told that no young men were out and about at the hour when they reported hearing these disturbing sounds. Finally came the day when with a loud and very audible sound the earth slipped away in the middle of the night, taking hastily abandoned houses with it. This incident contributed to the folk saying that the earth has its own spirit. Pity we cannot verify this statement, but many with a similar world-view believe in it.
At the end of July and beginning of August last summer, a narrator tells me that a fierce wind blew for a whole week through the Kohima town area. It was confined only to Kohima town. When one drove toward the southern Angami areas, the wind dissipated. When a car crossed the Naga hospital area towards Dimapur, the wind subsided. A few days after this strange wind, the landslide of Phesama took place. Was that fierce wind trying to warn of a greater calamity to come?
I believe Nature has not lost its power of communicating with us. It is still speaking to us and giving warnings before destructive events take place. And all that is part of our bondedness with the earth, and we should heed those warnings and do our part in taking care of the earth. If strange things are happening, perhaps it is our duty to take note and be attuned to what Mother Nature is trying to tell us. In the past weeks, Kohima has reached a sweltering level of warmth. The dry heat is enervating and many people are complaining of various ailments and lethargy in general. It’s not surprising considering our present environment. There are almost no trees left in the town area. Except for a copse of pines near the former Assembly secretariat and the war cemetery area, our streets are devoid of trees. The heart of the town is choking for fresh air that only trees can give. We have just too many houses, too many cars, too many people. We can’t do anything about the excess people but we can plant trees in allocated places in the town area like the new NST, on the border areas of the Khuochiezie ground, outside school compounds, along street borders, etc. We can do so much more in every town, and not just the capital town.
An earthquake is Earth’s very loud heartbeat.
Can we train ourselves to listen to it and respond in the way she wants us to?
