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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

After Effects of Earthquakes

Fires, broken down transport systems, blackouts, shortage of food and water and even nuclear meltdowns must have come to your mind seeing the title. Indeed those are among the most tragic of after effects, but much have been said about them I've got pretty much nothing more to add. However I can reveal you some slightly different after effects of earthquakes, which you had no idea existed even I'm sure.

First, it can get rid of writer's (blogger's?) block, which is merely a fancy name for being too lazy to write or blog. Don't know how? Look at me. Okay you can't exactly look at me from over there, but you know what I mean. Good ol' yours truly has been not writing for so long that pretty much all my readers, who by the way account for an astounding 12 people, had forgotten me. But this earthquake was such a shock - figuratively as well as literally - it has somehow awaken the writer within, so to speak, and I hope that I'll be able to churn out posts at a rate faster than the rate Pakistan lose wickets when they are in a collapse hereafter for the sake of this elite bunch of readers which include you, my dear reader. Okay that sentence is stretching things way too far and is wrong on so many accounts, for a) there is not so much a 'writer' within me, b) you aren't really in any kind of elite bunch just because you read this blog and c) I'm pretty sure I won't be churning out posts at that rate anytime soon. I just hope I'd be able to blog regularly.

That's the "good" part and now let's move on to the bad, which I might even call ugly as in the expression "The good, the bad and the ugly". But I digress. Getting back on topic, this goddamn earthquake has also given me the mother of all blocked noses which I'm sure you all will agree that indeed is a tragedy. Let me explain. For a couple or so weeks before the earthquake I had a runny nose and teary reddened eyes mainly because of pollen allergies. Which is a bitch, but it was manageable. But then on the day of the tragic quake the transportation was a mess and I had no option but to walk back home, a walk of about 12 kilometers. A walk that long in itself is bad enough, but having to do so at night with very strong winds in a temperature of about 4 degrees is just, well, worse. Naturally the next day I woke up with a bad cold but luckily it was Saturday and then the following Monday we got an off day from work because transportation was not back to normal even then, so I managed to manage my cold by staying warm. But then afterwards I had to go to work, and after a week or so yesterday it was SO bad that I had to stay home breathing through my mouth. Imagine if somebody filled your nose to the brim with soil and then pressed it hard too for good measure. That's how I felt for the last two days, no kidding.