Lessons from Crisis - 2/52

Universe >> Milky Way >> Solar System >> Earth >> Asia >> India >> Kerala.

That's the address for my Home State of Kerala.

This year, on 25th of August, this small state of 14 districts was planning to celebrate the harvest festival of Onam. And as you might have already heard, all such plans were cancelled because of the worst flood to hit this side of the country in over a century.

Having received heavy monsoon rains for over two weeks, 35 of the 42 dams in the state had to be opened, which resulted in flooding of the low lying areas. Kerala is known for receiving heavy downpour during this season, but a three fold increase in rain was too much to handle. We experienced first hand the power of water to bring life to a halt.

A death toll of 375+; over 3 lakh people being evacuated from their homes and being housed in over 5000 relief camps across the state; landslides across the state making many areas inaccessible for relief and rescue; entire homes getting submerged in water, soaking every piece of material possession that family had.

My relatives have had water rise up to the roof level of their house, leaving mud on each and every piece of garment they have. I have colleagues who could do nothing but watch helplessly as water engulfed their newly constructed house. I know people who had their entire stock of wares get waterlogged in a matter of hours.

People were stranded in their own homes for days- with no power supply, no clean water, meagre food supply and no knowledge of what was happening elsewhere. To come back from the haunting memories of that trauma would require herculean efforts.

No one in this part of the world knew of a disaster of such proportions, but if you look at the way the entire state swung into action for rescue and relief, you would have been mislead to believe that they handle these situations on a regular basis.

As the water recedes, leaving in its aftermath tales of grief and misfortune, we as a State are determined to rebuild on the positives.

• Like how social media can be a powerful tool in such events, playing its' part in co-ordinating rescue activities and distribution of relief materials.
• Like people setting aside their differences in ideologies - religious and political - to help each other in this time of need.
• Like the Mr.Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram District, trying to get help from UN and WHO, in his own individual capacity and on his own expenses.
• Like the credibility shown by the Media houses to nip in the bud many fake news being spread on social media.
• Like the maturity of the Keralities to ignore the mass hatred shown on social media towards Kerala at the time of distress to concentrate on those who needed their help. And I must equally compliment them for making sure that these comments are not forgotten now.

I can show you hundreds of pictures and stories showing the havoc caused in Kerala. Instead I chose to let you see the following pictures, which lets us know that humanity still exists. 

1. Saying Thanks to the REAL SUPERHEROES. The Fishermen community was in full force at the water logged places, taking the lead role in the rescue operations. Their efforts were, and will never be forgotten.

2. Saying THANKS for the Chopper Rescue. With their home becoming an island, people were forced to climb on to the roof to escape the rising water. And they were rescued by the brave sons of the country using Helicopters.

3. Showing the way forward. The calamity has hit the state during festive season. Even though a decision was taken unanimously to not celebrate the same at the usually grand levels, the following picture from a relief camp reminds us how we used to celebrate - together.

4. Every rupee counts. The magnanimity of an eight year old, Ms.Anupriya in donating her entire savings towards the relief fund overshadows the lack of central aid and rejection of foreign aid. And the response from the company is truly amazing.

5. Techies to the rescue. Not every man can tame the sea, but everyone can help those capable to do so. These brilliant minds decided to help their brethren by making these effective power banks to be airdropped at the rescue locations.

***

The JK (pheno)Menon

When I heard that this person bought a Force Gurkha, I thought WHY??

When he pulled the following stunt by crossing a river using that Gurkha, I again thought WHY??

When he saved dozens of lives and helped in distribution of relief materials using the same Gurkha over the last week, I knew WHY.

Reboot - 1/52

As any IT support guy worth his hardware will tell you, if something is inexplicably wrong with the way things are now, just reboot the entire system. More often than not, things will start writing again.

So, yeah. We are trying to restart this conversation again.

***

It has been over a decade since I first blogged. Thankfully, I was blessed with the power of hindsight to delete them. The rest of the wrecks from that era are lodged in the drafts sections, serving as reminders of what not to write.

I will confess. I've had multiple blogs - trying to crave a niche. There was one in which I decided to document my daily life. It didn't click, but I find that it is working for some people now.

Then there's this blog - where I experimented a lot, and found a lot of joy and acknowledgement. I wrote continously, once a week, for over two years. And it was well received. I was evergreen blessed with regular readers.

This challenged me to make every blog interesting for them. And one of the most interesting blogs I wrote was one in which all sentences were questions. I liked having that challenge over the two years.

*Enter stage right - The year 2015.*

*Exit stage left - Time.*

So, in the first quarter of the year 2015, two monumental things happened - I joined the banking sector, and I got married. Now, people will tell you that working in Banks is hard. Others will tell you that getting married is hard. And I had to work through both.

Now, Ammu is a darling. The only problem I had with marriage is that everyone expected me to be this different person overnight. I was (still am to a large extent) this kid in a guy's body. I was inquisitive but withdrawn; playful but respectful; and always strived to keep maturity at an arm's length, because I thought it didn't suit me.

I chose to believe that I handle situations with a particular charm with these characteristics of mine. But, to be a functional member of this society, I had to make compromises over the last three years, and I'm glad to let you know that a sweet spot has been arrived at.

So the two changes that I went through in 2015 heaped on me enough challenges, to make the thought of being creative on this online platform a chore. That's why I consciously chose to withdraw from my blogging spree.

***

Today is the Eighteenth of August, 2018. My Ammu's age is technically being incremented by one today. So, I started off writing this blog as a gift to her. She loves reading what I write and I love to write for her.

But that's when a grander idea hit me. This will be the first part of a 52 part gift that I will give her for next year.

***

Obviously this blog was supposed to be uploaded one week before. But I chose not to do so, as unrelenting rain led to floods throughout Kerala.