'Things are finally looking up'

Overcoming Tragedy

Hoping never to see or experience anything like that again are two Bangaloreans Ranjan and his wife Prathima, who are currently working in Tsyzuki Ku, Yokohama in Japan. The couple, who have been living there for the past two years, recounted the tragic day.

Around 3 pm, Ranjan was in his office on the fourth floor when he first felt the tremors. Since earthquakes are a part and parcel of Japanese lives, no one in the office took the tremors seriously.



“It was when the false ceiling from the office collapsed that we all rushed for shelter. I immediately went under a table. Soon, the office was evacuated and we were all sent home,” he describes. As his house was located very close to his work place, Ranjan rushed home to find things intact but couldn’t reach his wife Prathima.

Around the same time, Prathima was in her friend’s house. They were just about to go for shopping when they felt the tremors. They rushed out of the house and stood on the road divider. “It was very difficult to maintain the balance as the entire place was shaking and we could see the light poles on the roads frantically moving. The phone lines were jammed and we couldn’t call anyone,” says Prathima, who feels that it was an image she cannot forget.

When things subsided for a while, Prathima rushed home and found her husband safe. “We immediately called our families who were worried on seeing the news. With all these images on television, it was very difficult to convince them that things were fine,” she says.

Now with life in Yokohama slowly coming back to normal, the duo says that things are looking up but they are worried about  the nuclear reactor. “It’s an incident that no one should ever have to go through again but we do want to tell all those back home that things are finally looking up,” they sign off.