An Account of Cyclone Yash ~ A millennial's narrative

It was the night of 25th May. The various weather media had concluded many days ago that the cyclone may hit us slam-bang in the middle of the day on the 26th. I was about to experience my second cyclone in as many years. Bengal has been hit by cyclones a lot, but the one I was able to keep a good account of had happened only a year prior. It was Amphan and now it is Yash. Fascinating names, isn’t it? Well not fascinating enough when it comes to traumatizing people.

I am a really privileged child, to be honest. In the rural areas, people my age were trying to get their hands on anything that will this the roof over their head. And here I was, sitting in my home, with a roof over my head. Here I was trying to get the DTH antenna in place on the roof bolting them, and some people were trying hard to keep their roof in place.

Then there are always some people who come in the middle of all this. Neither can they be as peaceful as the urban elite nor are they as tensed as the people in the villages. They were on a roll to stockpile perishable goods in their house to help themselves in case the effects of the cyclone becomes long-drawn and it gets difficult to get items later.

As one of the young members of the house, I was given a different kind of responsibility. Everyone was tensed about how the connectivity situation will end up after the cyclone. There are chances that there will be long power cuts. So, I was tasked with powering up every chargeable device in the house. If all the devices are charged at least people will be able to a few extra days without the connectivity. As someone who can barely go a minute idle I needed a lot of things to do in this period. I actually downloaded a lot of content in the car I actually go a few days without connectivity. It included books, movies, sitcoms, and many more. It actually would go longer than I need.

The animals all around were crying out loud. People say that they get the hunch of any natural phenomenon happening a long time before us. On that note, I must say that this is the time when you need to really come up and support them. They need your help. They need shelter. Let them at least be on the porches of your homes. This is way safer than the road filled with trees everywhere.

The day was finally here. I was not at all excited. I wanted the whole thing to be diverted somewhere else. I didn’t want to go through all this for the second time in as many years. The cyclone gods did listen to me. It was only a day of medium-speed storms rather than the storms. A long period of rain happened. Yes at some deep localities near our place was knee-high drowned but the damage was not severe.

The level of damage was more same everywhere. The villages in the coastal areas were severely damaged. The homes have been uprooted. The places are also drowning. The crops have been damaged and people are severely lacking in every resource possible. The rural areas are in a big mess because of this cyclone and they will need a lot of time to recover from this. Many people have put their hands up and helping these people in need and I would urge more and more people to come up these people in dire distress.

A few trees get uprooted during the storms. The process of nature healing itself. Maybe the roots were left not healthy enough to support the whole tree. My schoolmates lost a beloved tree this year. Standing right in the corner of our ground was this old tamarind tree. Being under the shade for the last 12 years was really bliss.

We as humans will not be forever receiving the bliss of the nature of we act like we are acting right now. The ill-treatment we are giving to nature is horrendous to think at times. Nature is finally giving it back to us, it is taking the things we are trying to get the best from. It is a lesson we should be taking and we need to sit up and notice how we are treating mother nature it will only come back to haunt us in the future.