Like death, earthquake, is a great leveller. The April 25-26 seismic upheaval flattened thousands of big and small structures in Nepal, Bihar, West Bengal, UP and elsewhere.But in Patna, where not a single life was lost in Saturday and Sunday owners of mansions, bungalows, apartments etc poured out to spend two-sleepless nights in open spaces at Gandhi Maidan, Patna Science Collge, parks, gardens etc. For a couple of nights they found themselves a bit closer to the pavement-dwellers, who sleep there every night unnoticed––be it during chilly winter, heavy downpour or scorching summer.

They live with mosquitoes, rats, pigs, street-dogs, snakes, insects and what not in these mini-zoos called hutments across the city. They hardly make any news. No chief minister pays visit to console them in the cruelest of climatic condition.

During winter some philanthropists would distribute blankets to them. The state machinery would wake up, often at the fag end of the season. These lesser mortals would put up their own bonfires to fight cold.

Earthquake is one calamity, which, unlike others, hit the rich harder than poor and deprived. Those already on the streets have nothing to lose. It is an established fact that earthquakes normally do not kill, it is the house collapse which causes casualties.

On these two fateful nights those living in pavements for years were a bit amused. Their kids were taken aback by the sudden overflow of all these open spaces. Nobody was perhaps mindful of the Ravan Dahan day stampede in the same Gandhi Maidan last October in which 33, mostly women and children,
perished. Perhaps any such occurrence may cause much bigger casualty. But in this era of WhatsApp generated rumours nobody was prepared to lend his/her ear to any warning against this conglomeration of panic-stricken human being.

Some of these neo-rich arrived in cars with their lap-tops and mobiles, others on two-wheelers and rickshaws and yet some others marched with mats, ‘chaddars’ and pillows. A couple of hours of uneasy stay made the life boring. Some would pray to God in this hour of crisis, others tried to indulge in merry making to keep their sleep away, and the rest would play with the electronic gadgets.

But perhaps none ever bothered to go and have a few words with the permanent residents of these places––not even for the sake of cathartic satisfaction.Though the quakes sometimes blur the dividing line between the haves and have-nots, yet it was still visible in Bihar’s capital. The state government made all sorts of arrangementsfor them while CM Nitish Kumar himself made a couple of trips to some of these ‘shelters’.

But at least on one count the slum-dwellers can boast of their superiority. They had a plastic-sheet roof over their heads while the affluent and powerful preferred to spend nights under the sky.

The tremors shook the people to the core. There is likelihood of social and economic aftershocks hitting Patna. As schools were closed for two days after weekend holidays it was the time for the natives to return to their roots. They motored-down to their ancestral homes in villages or small towns, where the life is not so crammed and suffocated. Two nights under sky is enough for them.

For them Patna is no more as attractive a destination. There is a palpable fear of decline in real estate business and construction bubble may burst.All these happened when the epicenter of the earthquake was in a different country, Nepal. For 10-years old street-boy, Ramu, life remains as usual. After a couple of nights of light and activities, darkness and dullness gripped the surrounding.Why not such tremors come frequently so that all could live together? he ponders. Obviously, no answer.