english moments full chapter 6 of class 9 pdf
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6. Weathering the Storm in Ersama
The cyclone that hit Orissa in October 1999killed thousands of people and devastatedhundreds of villages. For two dreadful nightsPrashant, a young man, was marooned on theroof of a house. On the third day he decided togo to his village. Did he find his family?2019-20aglasem.com
ON 27 October 1999, seven years after his mother’s death,Prashant had gone to the block headquarters of Ersama, a smalltown in coastal Orissa, some eighteen kilometres from his village,to spend the day with a friend. In the evening, a dark andmenacing storm quickly gathered. Winds beat against the houseswith a speed and fury that Prashant had never witnessed before.Heavy and incessant rain filled the darkness, ancient trees were6. Weathering the Storm in ErsamaThe cyclone that hit Orissa in October 1999killed thousands of people and devastatedhundreds of villages. For two dreadful nightsPrashant, a young man, was marooned on theroof of a house. On the third day he decided togo to his village. Did he find his family?2019-20aglasem.com
38 / Momentsuprooted and crashed to the earth. Screams rent the air as peopleand houses were swiftly washed away. The angry waters swirledinto his friend’s house, neck deep. The building was of brick andmortar and was strong enough to survive the devastation of thewind’s velocity of 350 km per hour. But the cold terror of thefamily grew with the crashing of trees that had got uprooted andfallen on their house, some time in the middle of the night,damaging its roof and walls.The crazed destruction wrought by the cyclone and the surgeof the ocean continued for the next thirty-six hours, although windspeeds had reduced somewhat by the next morning. To escapethe waters rising in the house, Prashant and his friend’s familyhad taken refuge on the roof. Prashant will never forget the shockhe experienced at his first glimpse of the devastation wrought bythe super cyclone, in the grey light of the early morning. A raging,deadly, brown sheet of water covered everything as far as the eyecould see; only fractured cement houses still stood in a few places.Bloated animal carcasses and human corpses floated in everydirection. All round even huge old trees had fallen. Two coconuttrees had fallen on the roof of their house. This was a blessing indisguise, because the tender coconuts from the trees kept thetrapped family from starving in the several days that followed.For the next two days, Prashant sat huddled with his friend’sfamily in the open on the rooftop. They froze in the cold and incessantrain; the rain water washed away Prashant’s tears. The only thoughtthat flashed through his mind was whether his family had survivedthe fury of the super cyclone. Was he to be bereaved once again?Two days later, which seemed to Prashant like two years, therain ceased and the rain waters slowly began to recede. Prashantwas determined to seek out his family without further delay. Butthe situation was still dangerous, and his friend’s family pleadedwith Prashant to stay back a little while longer. But Prashantknew he had to go.He equipped himself with a long, sturdy stick, and then startedon his eighteen-kilometre expedition back to his village throughthe swollen flood waters. It was a journey he would never forget.He constantly had to use his stick to locate the road, to determine2019-20aglasem.com
Weathering the Storm in Ersama/ 39where the water was most shallow. At places it was waist deep,and progress was slow. At several points, he lost the road andhad to swim. After some distance, he was relieved to find twofriends of his uncle who were also returning to their village. Theydecided to move ahead together.As they waded through the waters, the scenes they witnessedgrew more and more macabre. They had to push away manyhuman bodies — men, women, children — and carcasses of dogs,goats and cattle that the current swept against them as they movedahead. In every village that they passed, they could barely see ahouse standing. Prashant now wept out loud and long. He wassure that his family could not have survived this catastrophe.Eventually, Prashant reached his village, Kalikuda. His heartwent cold. Where their home once stood, there were onlyremnants of its roof. Some of their belongings were caught,mangled and twisted in the branches of trees just visible abovethe dark waters. Young Prashant decided to go to the Red Crossshelter to look for his family.Among the first people he saw in the crowd was his maternalgrandmother. Weak with hunger, she rushed to him, her handsoutstretched, her eyes brimming. It was a miracle. They hadlong given him up for dead.Quickly word spread and his extended family gathered aroundhim, and hugged him tight in relief. Prashant anxiously scannedthe motley, battered group. His brother and sister, his unclesand aunts, they all seemed to be there
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Answer:
A force is a push or pull upon an object resulting from the object's interaction with another object. Whenever there is an interaction between two objects, there is a force upon each of the objects.