My tube had been put on mute and all my ten odd news channels lined back to back. All I did today was flipped through them over and over and had no inclination to increase the volume to any audible level. The sights were distressing and all I saw was trains derailed, people stranded, complaining, hungry, desperate, women crying, death by the worst cause and I wondered about all the celestial injustice and divine vengeance. If at all I have learnt anything out of it, it is the value of having a family and a home which keeps you dry.
I have never been a negative person, I have never wanted to ask questions to my destiny which would have replied to me in answers uncalled for (lest I had questioned it.) but this entire ‘operation flood’ of astronomical proportions, forces me to ask unhealthy questions like “what if…”. What if I were one of the people living in places so far away that they could not be accessed independent of public services? What if I had parents that worked in remote suburbs or vice versa? What if the landslides happened in my vicinity? What if among the people who died, there were some of my own? I know it sounds as if I am not concerned about those who have lost their loved ones only because I was not one of them, but I can’t think of the situation where I would be the incumbent. I’m only too moved to think sense at this point in time. I heard of friends walking ten hours straight to reach to their places. I heard of people walking thirty five kilometers on the railway tracks to come home to a worried family. I heard of children crying of hunger and thirst and helpless parents waiting for the blessed train to take them home. It’s carnage by nature. It’s an answer in the form of a slap to the faces of all those who said “nothing can touch our city… Gujarat and UP are all too underdeveloped to be accident-proof”.
I can’t go on forever but the crux of the post is the fact that all who are reading this in the cozy chairs of their homes equipped with technology, should be more than thankful to have been eliminated from the hit-list of Mother Nature. I know I am.
I have never been a negative person, I have never wanted to ask questions to my destiny which would have replied to me in answers uncalled for (lest I had questioned it.) but this entire ‘operation flood’ of astronomical proportions, forces me to ask unhealthy questions like “what if…”. What if I were one of the people living in places so far away that they could not be accessed independent of public services? What if I had parents that worked in remote suburbs or vice versa? What if the landslides happened in my vicinity? What if among the people who died, there were some of my own? I know it sounds as if I am not concerned about those who have lost their loved ones only because I was not one of them, but I can’t think of the situation where I would be the incumbent. I’m only too moved to think sense at this point in time. I heard of friends walking ten hours straight to reach to their places. I heard of people walking thirty five kilometers on the railway tracks to come home to a worried family. I heard of children crying of hunger and thirst and helpless parents waiting for the blessed train to take them home. It’s carnage by nature. It’s an answer in the form of a slap to the faces of all those who said “nothing can touch our city… Gujarat and UP are all too underdeveloped to be accident-proof”.
I can’t go on forever but the crux of the post is the fact that all who are reading this in the cozy chairs of their homes equipped with technology, should be more than thankful to have been eliminated from the hit-list of Mother Nature. I know I am.
3 comments:
Glad you didn't float away pal.... you still owe us a treat.
float away, and rakshit.. You must be joking man!
But that said, Mr. Lall, it doesn't mean you are squirming away from your treat too!
By toutatis, if ever the sky has fallen upon our heads, it is today!
BRAAAOOM!
hi rakSHIT
u write really well
glad to hear u r safe n sound
miss u a lot
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