Tuesday, October 31, 2006

What can I do ?

A son of a widowed mother, husband of 9 months pregnant lady, a fatherly figure for a younger brother there he was lying on the hospital bed with a broken leg and stitches on the head, the face --- And as I stood there besides him that Saturday evening , the seriousness of it all struck me. Talking to him, I could make out that he was very lucky - a miraculous escape considering the fact that he was in one of those 7 compartments! Things could have easily been very very different and far more tragic. I shuddered at the thought of how many families and friends have lost their sons, brothers, and father.

It filled me with anger and frustration -- anger at what wrong have all these innocent people done. why do they have to suffer and frustration at not being able to contribute something worthwhile to help out (or rather not being able to figure out what to do)

Then there's a talk about the Spirit of Mumbai. No doubt it was wonderful to see people helping out strangers in this moment of crisis. But to say that the city is so resilient that it got back to action the next day looks like glorification/ romanticism. Its more about the lack of choice - people have to work to earn the daily bread, the hawker, the businessman , auto-driver cannot afford not going to work and the trains are still the fastest way of commuting. This talk about Spirit of Mumbai, might just shift the focus from those who need to be held accountable and answerable - the government, the intelligence agency, and the police. How are the families who lost the sole bread winner going to cope up? The monetary compensation might help in the short run, but the vacuum which is created by the loss of a near and dear one is impossible to fill!!

Although I strongly feel that each one of us can contribute to make things better, I still have no clue ..where to start ...I am still thinking....

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A very thoughtful piece of writing..I liked the closing line..makes u think...
cheers
Devendra

Rekha Devarapalli said...

Hey...this title seems to suit well :-)Keep posting!!We would like to share ur thoughts and take part in ur actions if possible...

Vaidehi Dongre said...

i know one gets disturbed at such instances, all u can do is help the person who suffered, pray for him & try within ur capacity to be as secular as u can! good one gaurav :)

Anonymous said...

Words can never paint a picture!

but why do I feel pictures moving in front of my eyes??

Good one Gaurav!!

Anonymous said...

Very serious topic which currently we all are facing. Very often we face such incidents and at that time we think what help we can lend. But more often we forget when the incident is all over and people come to their normal life. Its only one who have lost their near and dear ones in such incident know how difficult it is to overcome such trauma.

Nice to see your second entry in blogspot.