A Cruel Tragedy

26th Dec. 2004 will go down as yet another day when natural forces got the better of man. The whole world watched in helplessness as killer waves swept families from their homes. A huge earthquake measuring 8.9 on Richter hit the South and South-East Asia. The epicentre of the quake was in Indonesian island of Sumatra. The quake triggered the dreaded Psunamis, giant waves that were 40 mts high and travelled at 8oo Kmph. It took these predators nearly 3 hours to strike our unsuspecting fishermen, tourists, sea-watchers and all those unfortunate to be near the sea.

The death toll is already in thousands. There are casualties in TamilNadu, Andhra, Andamans, Thailand, Srilanka and Indonesia. The relief and rescue efforts are on in full measure. Army and para-military forces have been summoned, corporates are collecting money from employees, TV channels are beaming ‘I’m safe’ messages from people caught in these areas so that their nervous relatives can heave a sigh of relief. Power to those who are helping the needy!

It saddens one’s heart to see those people crying - their huts washed off in ocean’s fury, their families lost and their lives disfigured beyond recognition. What about the couple who went for their honeymoon to a resort? What about the fishermen? Could this have been prevented?

The only image that haunts me is that of Shivraj Patil touring the affected areas on a helicopter. The situation is so bad that the leader can’t come down from his perched seat, high in the skies, above the trials and tribulations that common men are confronted with. This picture was not unique. Year after year, tragedy after tragedy, we see the same picture - a clueless leader peeping from the window of his vimana, nodding sedately at accompanying reporters and lamenting the tragedy that has befallen our nation. They never come down, whether it is earthquake, or flood, or violence, or even a fancy sounding Psunami. They ’assess’ the situation from the top and ’supervise’ the relief efforts. Then they move onto the cosy comforts of their ministries, fight and bad-mouth their opponents in the legislative bodies and vote unanimously on increasing their ’perks’.

Are they doing something worthwhile for our nation? ’Why Yes, who do you think is taking care of national security?’ Off course! National security is enhanced by increasing their security cordons from X to Y to Z or whatever, all at taxpayer’s expense. And here we die, of natural calamities!

May the soul of departed rest in peace,
and this tragedy never repeat.
That ministers climb down from perched seats,
and get in-sync with the people’s beat.