Memories from the floods for a better day

If you were living in Chennai or Madras (if you prefer) when the city went under the massive rains in December 2015 you will understand this post.

Waking up to heavy incessant rains overnight the roads were inundated, power had been suspended several hours earlier as safety precaution, mobile towers were down because the generators that kept them running after the power supply was terminated had run down. The absence of power ensured that the humble radio was the only source of information and mercifully the land line worked.

We were relatively better off than those whose homes got washed away or some who lost their lives due to a combination of nature’s fury and human incompetence or greed. We were cut off from outside world for a few days but we were well, we managed with what we had and then we ran out of essentials. When the rain eased off a little I went out in the flooded roads looking for any shop that may be open to stock up on essentials after a search I managed to find one shop but then I only had my cards and not enough cash, on a normal day I could have gone to any ATM nearby or simply swiped the cards at an accepting store but on that day due to the network outage neither options worked.

I got the basic essentials on credit because humanity still won and the shopkeeper supplied not just to me but others who had the same challenge. Once the rain subsided power was restored, roads were cleared, credit was repaid and life went on.

Now pause and consider a former state where communication has been suspended and the region under a lockdown for purely political reasons. Imagine the duress and the suffering the people must be going through. No shops, banks, critical supplies, transport, communication for days. How cruel must some people be who impose these kinds of sufferings on common people for their personal hurrahs. In a democracy where freedom to live is given here this has been snatched away in one foul swoop.

Whatever may be your political affiliations or your personal beliefs, remember he who is not with you is not against you. It is not binary; India has not been homogeneous and should never be. Keep the politics and the stupidity aside be humane. Live and let live. You will never know what the other man is going through unless you are in his place. You will not know what despair, frustration, hurt is till you feel it.

What goes around will come around.

Image courtesy Google Images