I was buying coffee in Bangkok when I felt the tremors: Amol Parashar

A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar (Burma) on March 28, the tremors of which were also felt in Thailand. The countries are still reeling from the devastation after the catastrophe. Amol Parashar, who was in Thailand during the earthquake, shares his experience with us. “My friends and I were on a short trip to Thailand (March 27-29). We had just landed in Bangkok, and I was buying myself a coffee when I felt the tremors. I thought maybe my head was spinning. I turned to my friend, who said, ‘I think my head is spinning’. At that moment, I knew it was something else. I looked down, and the ground beneath us seemed to be shaking, and the objects in the shop were moving. We ran out of the shop immediately and moved to a common area. By then, many people had realised it was an earthquake,” he says.
‘Metro lines shut down and offices and shops closed down’
The Sardar Udham actor adds, “By the time we got into the car to go to our hotel, more information about the scale of the earthquake had started pouring in. Metro lines had shut down, and offices and shops closed down, and the whole city turned into a huge traffic jam. It took us five gruelling hours to reach our hotel.”
‘Despite the calamity, the locals remained calm’
What struck Amol the most was the civic sense among locals. “It was heartening to see that despite such a calamity, the locals displayed civic sense and remained calm. Even in the traffic, cars stuck to their lanes, people gave space to each other to walk around, and no one was breaking rules, shouting, honking or fighting. When we stepped out for dinner, the city was back in its groove, though a little emptier than expected. We are back in Mumbai, and we are relieved that we didn’t face any disastrous situation.”