Affection Umbrella for the Rain of Soil

In September 1962 a big earthquake shook Boien Zahra in Qazvin province and killed and injured thousands of people. People spontaneously and immediately hurried there to help the victims of earthquake. I was sadly impressed for this catastrophe and along with a group of my pals in Abbassi Quarter we collected people’s donations for the victims. People had trust to us and despite their poorness they gave us lot of things to take for the victims. When we collected all, we decided to carry them by ourselves in order to be sure they would to hands of earthquake victims. So, 7 of my friends and I rented a bus and moved toward Qazvin.

When we were passing Boien Zahra, the ruins of earthquake were horrible. You would not see a one-meter-tall wall. Three days after earthquake with reached to a village called Roodak. Our bodies trembled of what we were seeing. Horrified people had taken shelters in foothills. Almost nothing was left from the village houses.[1] The ruined walls had made the gardens fenceless.

We passed a bad night. The next morning, we found out the people over there were Turk and that village had about 500 families. Before the earthquake the village population had been about 2000 people. Some of them had died or injured and some had moved to other places in search of their unclear destiny. Unofficial reports would show there were only 200 people left and were mourning for ruined homes. We could make close relations with people and could observe what had happened to their lives. They were horrified. They were horrified and confused. After each aftershock they would run to foothills. Their eyes were dry of weeping and looking at us dumbstruck. There was a strange situation. Watching these scenes made us sad and confused.

The government was shouting that lot of help had been sent there, but up to that day there were only the help received from Bazaar.

We gave the things with to others to be distributed and then we began to look for corpses under the ruins. Those days there were no equipment to help us find the bodies underground and we would find them by looking at vultures and other animals.

We would help people with love and affection. In some diggings we would see corpses with foul smell. Some of them had been smashed and when bringing them out they would fall apart. After one week, our hands took the smell of human oil, since we had no soap to wash them.

For our food we would use the fruits on the trees particularly walnuts and plums. Almost every day, after morning prayers, we would take the shovels and mattocks for digging the ground and finding the corpses.

One day, I saw a woman who was digging the ground by her bare hands; her fingers’ skin was abraded. She had been in coma for few days and had found out that she had lost her husband and three daughters. This scene impressed me so much. I could see a cat that was wandering over there and crying.

We began looking for her family and bringing them out of soil. We smelled and spotted the point to dig. While we were digging to find the corpses, that lady would come and go and cry. She would stand and watch for some moments and then would run away scared and horrified.

I asked her: “Why this cat is doing like this?”

She said: “Her kitten is also under the ground!”

While we were digging, a hole was opened and the cat ran inside and the shortly later came out and ran away with a strange cry. We found the corpses of three kittens. We dug another hole and searched for the man his daughters. We found them finally. It was a strange and shocking scene. The father had passed away while keeping her daughter in his arms.

In the last days of our presence in Roodak village, gradually some people and groups came from Army and Red Sun & Loin Society. When they came the affairs were organized. They fired some places to cleanup.

When people anxiety and grievances simmered down, we came back with agitated and disturbed minds.