Natural calamities - human made or fate?

Sarvan was walking back from the school

He liked the location of his tiny village on the long meadow that ran in parallel to the stream

A dozen scattered homes with respective farm lands at their backyard filled the scene of the village

Sarvan, a 5th standard student of an elementary school that served the educational needs of a half dozen villages in the vicinity

Possessed better IQ for a village boy

Connectivity to the world was mainly the television and the lone computer system at the school

Mobile phones were still a luxury in his village life and he hardly had the access to a mobile phone

All the villages were located at an elevated level at the foot hills of a mountain range

Sarvan has often heard his parents fondly mentioning their ancestral roots in this village for more than three generations

Conversations among the elders in the village altered as per the season and during the monsoon, the topic was mostly about the past natural calamities

Last ten days, it's been pouring and the news channels were cautioning the villagers of impending natural catastrophe

As usual the seniors of the villages brushed aside the alerts blaming the news channels for gaining viewership counts at the cost of public disturbance

Also, they pointed out that none of the senior political leaders have supported the news channels reports and nor the weather experts voicing in favour

But this evening felt different for sarvan and something in him kept nudging to take his family to their uncle's home in the city for a few days

He in fact shared his thoughts with his school friends and ended up getting mocked at

Back home, sarvan insisted that they all leave at once and pleaded with his father to pay attention

It was his mother who took the final call to travel since she believed in her son's intuition

As the bus dropped them at the city busstand, there was utter commotion as everyone were talking in loud tones about the massive landslide which had buried more than a dozen villages

A shiver ran through the spine of sarvan and his parents as the enormity of the catastrophe struck their minds

Sarvan saw his uncle rushing towards them and he was all tears to see them standing alive in front of him

Sarvan's father kept trying to reach his friends back home but it was the automated reply which kept repeating

'Phones switched off or not reachable and to try after sometime'

Seeing his parents crying uncontrollably, sarvan also broke down thinking of his friends

They badly wished to return to their village but all transport to that location were temporarily stopped

At uncles home, the television revealed the actual situation around their location and there was no trace of any of the half dozen villages nor the residents

So they reluctantly stayed in sarvan uncle home for two days and on the third day

Sarvan's father and his uncle left by a cab to their village area to volunteer for the rescue operations

Ten days has rolled by and the devastation has claimed hundreds of lives and had completely altered the landscape of the entire foothills

Sarvan wasn't sure of his immediate future as his young mind was preoccupied with the effects of the disaster

He couldn't still fathom the reason for the elders of his village ignoring the repeated warnings over the years by the nature conservators and environment experts through the television media

One reality that starred their face was

No going back home 🏡

Maybe they will opt to settle down in this city and start their lives, afresh

Sarvan thought

Will I ever breathe the fresh air of my village?

It's a question mark ❓