Tears of a Nation

It was a gloomy day. The airport was partly vacant. American Airlines plane was about to take off. “Attention Passengers! This is the captain speaking from the cockpit. There will be a 20 minute delay due to inclement weather.” Passengers were arranging their baggage and getting ready for the journey while the announcement was being made. There was a look of fear on everyone’s face. The other day, an Ethiopian airlines plane plunged into the Mediterranean in a ball of fire. The Air hostess kept on explaining the security measures as the plane took off. Then, the announcement began, “now the time is 06:00 AM, latitude-longitude is at 18° 32’N 72° 20’W. The distance is 1532 nautical miles. We have 4 hrs 35'' journey, and we are expected to reach New York airport by 12.25 am. Have a nice journey.” The Airplane flew over the mountainous land. After passengers had refreshments, most of them were nearly asleep and some were watching satellite view and descriptions of their destination countries on the screens in front of them. All of a sudden, a rush of adrenaline filled everyone’s body. After a one hour journey there was a big tremor with a turbulent din.  Everyone woke up in fear. A 10 year old boy started to scream and the person sitting nearby was trying to soothe him.

The boy became silent for a while. The fear was tangible, but there was one small child who was playing with his parents unaware of anything. Watching this small child, the 10 year old boy’s thoughts rushed to his mind and he remembered last week’s telephone conversation with his father who was working in United States. He said, “My dear son! I want to say sorry in advance because I won’t be there at the airport to pick you up. My friend will come to get you. And I promise you that I will take you out for this vacation. Okay dear”. The boy continued with his dreams. Time passed so fast. Half of the journey is over. From beyond their expectations, they were again haunted with a second tremor. The passengers were again gripped with fear. All were conscious about the air hostess running in and out of the cabin. An Announcement came again: “Attention passengers! Don’t panic; this turbulence is due to air pockets. We will be reaching New York on time.” Although everyone got some relief, the boy seemed awfully upset.

There was one hour left in journey. Everybody wanted to reach the destination soon. This time nobody wanted to sleep, because of the memories of Ethiopian airlines. Some passengers were silently praying not to have anything happen. Another announcement again: “we are reaching the destination within 15 minutes; make sure your seat belts are tight.” As soon as the announcement finished, there was a chain of tremors sustained for a few seconds. It was above and beyond what they had felt before. This time cabin crews and hostess were so busy. Actually, one of the engines was broken. But the crew didn’t reveal this to the passengers. The boy’s face was so fearful and he started to shiver and cry.

The boy had a fever and the air hostess gave him some medicine. After the terrifying sequences of jerks, the plane landed safely. Everyone rushed to the arrival gate. Still there were security problems because of a threat. When the boy came outside the airport, his father’s friends came and took him to a car. The boy asked them very angrily “why didn’t he come to pick me up?” they replied, “Your daddy is so busy with his work. Didn’t he tell you last week?” The boy said, “This is the third time that he didn’t come to the airport.” Again, the journey continued. Every street had been deployed by security forces upon the arrival of some VIP’s. They were checking each and every vehicle and looking for someone. As they drove, he saw some school students playing in the school ground. Again his thoughts went back to the past. He remembered one of his school days. His school teacher was continuing her lectures on their country’s geographical features and was showing the location of the country through the atlas globe which was kept on the table. She continued, “We are celebrating our independence on 'New-Years day'. Only a few countries celebrate independence on January 1st: Western Samoa, Cameroon, Sudan and the last one is ours.” He was sitting near the class room window and he knew that something was going to happen.

Classes were about to finish by 5.0 clock. All students were getting ready to go home. The time was 4.53 PM. All at once, a sound hovered outside and overhead. He saw that the world on the table moved from the axis and fall down to the ground. Then he could only hear the sounds of destruction and cries of his classmates for help. He fainted. When his consciousness came back, he looked around for his mother, but nobody was there to hear his cries except for the doctors and nurses. Suddenly he woke up from the dream with the immediate breaking of car that collided with another car in front of a hospital. He had a minor injury and was taken him to the emergency department. He was still thinking about his busy father, who didn’t come to pick him up. He came out of the emergency room and he sat in a corner of that corridor crying loudly and sobbing, ‘My father didn’t come to see me’. But he didn’t know that his father, who had collapsed after that shocking incident of January 12, 2010, had been admitted in the same hospital for a serious cardiac arrest. He didn’t know the naked truth that he was going to be alone in this world.

At the same time, voices in the background kept repeating…special news from ABC, “UNICEF and its partners are conducting intensive relief operations in this earthquake region. Some humanitarian organizations have come forward to make more funds for the victims and they showed their willingness to adopt children who lost their parents and kin.”

Nowadays Mother Nature no longer shows any mercy upon people. Is it because of their inhumanity or because of global warming?