Well not really. Ever witnessed a bomb exploding 300 feet away from you? I can say I have. Ok before someone uses the TADA on me or something, it wasn’t a terrorist activity or anything. Ever heard of a building imploding? Or rather an attempt at it.

About a year ago, there was an explosion at the place where my dad worked. Sadly 2 men died that night. A year on, that part of the structure was decided to be brought down because it was no longer in working condition. Using explosives seemed like the fun logical way to do it.

We stood there for about 2 hours waiting for it to happen. No one was really told the exact timing of the thing. We just knew the timing in the range of say +-1 hour. We waited till it happened. The plan was to blow up the base in such a way that it would fall forwards (where there is nothing but open space). Now what happened was that the explosion cause the building’s base to come down and tilted it forward as expected (explosives on one side were lower than the other causing it to fall). Now it tilted about 10 odd degrees forward. Common sense says it should go over but.. it doesn’t! Something held it up! It actually rocked back and is resting on the building on the other side. A 64 mt tower leaned forward 10 degrees and actually rocked backwards again.. that’s amazing. I have no idea where it got all that force to counter act the momentum! (well we have estimates but meh).

Bottom line is that yes, I got to see a building implosion, a failed one at that. Now it seems they’ll try it again in a few days and I’d like to be there again It was fun.

The explosion was loud but not as loud as expected but you can blame the industrial ear buds my dad gave me for that It didn’t “feel” all that heavy but I wouldn’t dare stand any closer I wish to live!

Here’s a note for timestamp’s sake. I got my glasses on the 19th of March 2003, 2 hours before getting my PC (so stop blaming the poor thing for my eyesight!). A few hours ago, I just went out and bought myself some contact lenses which I’ll be using almost daily. I might switch over to my glasses late at night when working on something (I wouldn’t want to remove them when I’m half sleepy, now would I? :))

Tags: IRL