“Well, ‘ol boy,” a domiciliary Bangalorean might say casually flicking his cuffs, “it was simply horrendous, wasn’t it, but I didn’t bat an eye lid. I was having my usual afternoon siesta when the walls fell out and I remember telling myself,” I shouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t an earthquake” and then the RCC ceiling came crashing down and I narrowly saved myself from being crushed to death and again I remember telling myself, “yes, I believe it is an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter Scale and I then turned over and went back to catch my 40 winks.”

Or they might say, “When the quake hit, I rushed outside displaying extraordinary heroism and leadership. I single-handedly organised emergency squads to help free trapped women.”

Never mind the “trapped” women telling their ensnared audience, “We were in our kitchens fixing breakfast for our husbands when the quake hit and we immediately rushed outside and armed only with spoons and ladles, we began to dig frantically to free trapped men who were crying out piteously for succour from under the debris.”

If an erudite Bangalorean has a scientific vent of mind, he can wrap up the whole thing with an impressive and pedantic, “Earthquakes are caused when tectonic plates deep within the lithosphere surge forward and collide with the continental shelf.”

No doubt spinners of tall tales will have a field day, thanks to the temblor. “I was on my usual morning constitutional in Lal Bagh when there was this ear splitting roar like that of a heavily laden freight train hurtling down a mountain grade and the ground under me literally sundered into two and there was this biggest, widest and deepest chasm I had seen in my life and if I had unwittingly taken one more step......”

But Bangaloreans will surely regret that the epicentre of the quake should have been in Tamil Nadu and not at a location between the Chief Minister’s official residence and the legislators’ hostel for in that case, the ruling BJP could have promptly claimed that the quake was one more desperate attempt by the opposition Congress (I) and JD (S) to dislodge it and capture power.

However, Bangaloreans are confident that last Sunday’s quake will last out as a conversation topic for at least a fortnight and who knows by then a freak asteroid breaking away from the Hale Bopp comet or a killer tsunami from the Bay of Bengal 30 miles away will “hit” Bangalore and that will give the native Bangaloreans something to talk about for the next 15 days.

S. Raghunath