A life shattering Disaster that struck in the Indian Ocean taught me lessons about life……….. A very popular phrase goes “life is the best teacher”. Some incidents in life transform you totally. One such incident which changed my very perspective about life was an Earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale which shook the Indian Ocean at dawn on 26th of December, 2004 triggering a series of Tsunami waves of a magnitude unforeseen by humanity in its recent history, sweeping the coastal populace under the colossal force of the mighty tidal waves. The worst affected in India was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean having the maximum population, Tsunami left countless displaced, dead and lost at sea never to be found again. The pilot of the airplane announced that the plane was about to land, and asked us to be ready for a possibly dangerous landing because the runway had developed serious cracks following the devastating earthquake and, as a result, the length of the runway had been drastically shortened. By God’s grace our fear came to naught when the plane landed safely. Settlements and inhabitations had been completely wiped out on these islands. Communication infrastructure was virtually ripped off. Shipping and port activity, the backbone and lifeline of these islands, had come to standstill due to severe damage to port, docks and jetties. I came to learn that ebb tides still left back ashore heaps of dead bodies. One cannot easily imagine how appalling a sight the usually benign nature can throw up if gone berserk. I was deeply pained to see the suffering of my fellow citizens who were dislocated and distressed by the one cruel blow of Nature. The loss of human life, unpredictability of Natural forces, survivor’s instinct and the determination to keep life force going taught me invaluable lessons which perhaps cannot be taught in any University. Working amidst minimum resources to ensure optimum results taught me to value even the smallest...