The tremors of the recent earthquakes seem to have tapped into a certain area of our minds, majorly unperturbed up until now. Besides science fiction movies invoking a certain awe and appeal towards the concept of Armageddon or end of the world, it is usually during trying times like these that people become inclined towards a God-fearing state of mind. It is a little reminiscent of a popular meme that went viral a few months ago -"Communist until you get rich; Feminist until you get married; Atheist until the airplane starts falling"- that hits not too far away from home I suppose!

This phenomenon is rather paradoxical because as one gets older, unflinching conviction towards any belief-system generally starts to lose steam. The converse is equally true – atheists or antagonists often discover new-found faith, and soon after the realisation sets in, that besides being the most intelligent creatures on this planet, human beings are perhaps also exceptionally complex.

My co-worker and friend, Shiva Kusi in Sydney, has had to deal with the loss of life and property all in one day when the first earthquake hit Kathmandu on April 25, 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8 Mw, one of the highest intensity levels. Nepal, already being one of the most vulnerable sites for earthquakes, suffered its worst natural disaster since 1934. The initial death toll of 9,000 has been on a continual rise as waves of aftershocks continued to rock the epicentre, within 15-20 minutes intervals, with increased risk of landslides.

These tremors also made it all way to Sydney, with a lone Shiva clutching onto his mobile phone with dear life, having to deal with perhaps the worst news of his adult life – the demise of his two closest friends, the entire neighbourhood demolished with no sign of the structure that he once proudly called home, parents and siblings dispersed, and his fiancée and her family members made homeless.

In a matter of a few hours, the location of all his loved ones was in an open park without food or clean drinking water, in the middle of a brutal monsoon downpour.

Keeping rather abreast with the natural calamities was the failure of man-made creations last year that has shocked the world. The missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in early 2014 set off news of a domino series of aviation disasters. The portent continued into the current year with the latest Germanwings Flight 9525 crashing into the French Alps and resulting in the death of all 144 of its passengers and six crew members in March 2015. I do not just speak for myself when I say many of us felt the extent of bizarre circumstances around the world reaching new heights with this episode. A sense of impending doom hung in the air for the longest time suggesting that the universe was trying to tell us something.

Anything inexplicable has a habit of playing with our minds. This is the era of reason, a period ruled by logic. It thus serves to highlight the underlying hysteria as well. This is hysteria of suppressed desperation to believe in a power that has the capacity to lift the veil that lies before our eyes, hiding that which cannot be explained through our existing means. These are offshoots of the contemplation I began my writing earlier today with, when I touched on the topic of faith and consequent changes in our conviction pattern.

There are two ways to look at these calamities of global magnitude: logically and philosophically. I shall leave them to the experts of the two individual fields, but my own thoughts lie elsewhere: Just as negative encounters shape up an individual's experience in life, should not these natural and unnatural calamities lead to a wake-up call for our souls as much as changes in the infrastructure?

Is it too much of a vegetarian/tree-hugging expression to perhaps look around us and be a little less hypocritical? Forgive and forget a little easier? I remember a lot of survivors of World War II referencing the era as a 'different' time, that we of the current generation would never be able to relate to. The romances and reunions were rushed with a sense of urgency that implied they might not have the time tomorrow.

We are no longer in the midst of a war. However, when I observed my friend Shiva collecting warm clothes and donations around the workplace in the weeks after the start of the earthquakes in Nepal, I could not help but wonder if the world we lived in was all that dissimilar to past war-times. It was rather difficult sitting up here in Sydney to think of a nation out there where life has just stopped. I remember the day after the Martin Place siege happened, how Sydney had moved on, with people going about their businesses as usual despite the tremendous trauma from the incident. I remember thinking to myself 'you know you live in a first world when you get yourself out of bed and march along to work the next morning, no matter what!'

Interestingly, last week Shiva came to work looking a little disgruntled and devoid of his usual composure. Upon questioning, he decided to confide in me that his gorgeous fiancée back home, who by the way still resides out of a tent in the park with hundreds of others equally stranded, was being accosted and wooed by male counterparts from the neighbouring tents. Instead of finding this piece of information highly disturbing, I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Love and life always seem to find a way.

Naaz Fahmida is an HR specialist and Communication Advisor.