Wicked Tsunami !!
Tsunami has unleashed its insane power .. and people are still trying to pick up the remnants of their scattered lives...
We were heading towards Elephanta caves that very same day.. blissfully unaware of the quake that had happened in the morning .. When somebody said there had been an earthquake in Chennai it was with disbelief that I had called my sister who is put up there... She told me all was well except for the fact that the sea had come into the road... Even then the enormity dint strike us.. It was really early then for us to speculate...
Went to Elephanta.. took pictures .. did the usual shopping stuff..and came back... And then in the evening we came to know that 3000 people were dead in Tamil Nadu alone....All of us sitting there in that Mumbai Local were shocked and some of us started to call friends in Chennai frantically..... With every growing minute we became more and more shocked by the news we were getting about casualties in Indonesia, Sri Lanka , Thailand and so on...
It could have actually been you and me at the Marina... The photos we saw showed the effects of the violent hug that B of B had given Chennai.. Even more so with Nagapattinam... It reminded me of the 'Cyclones/Typhoons' that had made the ocean to totally eat up the ancient city of Poompugar(Tamil nadu) ...
All of us I guess feel that we are in a cocoon of sorts .. We have a sense of immortality when it concerns our family and friends.. Most of us believe that nothing can happen to our nears & dears... But Nature does not pamper us.. It spares none.. It does not see if it is your family or your enemy's....
All this is a known factor.... We do know mankind will perish some day.. But still such happenings come as a rude awakening to that fact...
We tried to do our best to help them... collected clothes.. some of us sent cheques... But there is a question in each mind .. Could we have done better ? Would it have helped if we were actually present there to help them? Should we have volunteered ? The Questions still hang in mid air for maybe most of us....
Mails keep floating around about how US Tsunami Warning systems had detected but dint report it due to the fact that the countries affected had not subscribed to them.... Such mails sicken & sadden us more..
It is hard to believe that subscriptions matter when it is a life & death situation .... Did they not even think about their citizens who may have come as tourists to Phuket ??
Heaven help mankind if they are genuine reports !!! ( I sincerely hope not ) It reduces all the faith that you still have in the Good will of people ...
I had written this on New Year's eve .. But posting it only right now...
Hope whoever reads had a Blast of a New Year celebration..... Happy New Year 2005 !!!
Lord Help us survive all such baddies that Nature sends our way this year !!
Signing off
Sundari
Comments