shaken - and stirred..

out of bed this morning by an earthquake.

this was my second experience of an earthquake.
the first, a few years ago, was in California.
that was reasonably mild - we were sitting on a sofa inside the new office being furnished, taking stock of the progress in the cabling work.
when i thought that the sofa moved a bit - as if someone got up and pushed it back, while getting up -and i also notices that the wires hanging from the roof were also swaying vigorously..

the other person, who has been a California resident, did not notice it. possibly because he was used to such small tremors.

when we came out and checked with the building owner, it was confirmed that i had experienced my first quake.

but this morning, it was far more intense.
i reached noida close to midnight and this was a new guest house, that i was staying at, for the first time.
this one, as minimalistic as some of the other guest houses i have stayed in - had a net connection and got connected and cleared a few mails and was in bed around midnight.

i was woken up when i felt the bed shaking.
before i realized and could stir out of bed, i could see and feel the door rattling, the chairs literally jumping, as if we were all in a sieve and someone was shaking it.

as i recalled the emergency steps to be taken, to get under a cot - which seems to be counter intuitive - and wondered if there would be sufficient space underneath.. it stopped.

check out this site from the Los Angeles Fire Department for some tips.
http://www.lafd.org/eqtips.htm

p.s. this post filed from the room that shook - less than three hours from the quake. could have done it earlier, but i went back to sleep :-)