Not everything is Right about India but we have Some Positive Civilisational Values

We have had some worst times last couple of years in our country. Lives have been lost, properties damaged and families disintegrated. Natural calamity and destruction is not only for India. The force of nature doesn't see if it is a developed country or developing, western union or Saarc. It just plays havoc. When nature's fury is common to all of us in this world what is different? What is special when it comes to India?

Aftermath of Tsunami we have seen so many people rushing to help far and wide of India and yeah some great souls far away from even India. The response of people who live kilometers away from the shore to reach out and help has been tremendous.

When I traveled to Nagapattanam among our group of 14 people only two people were working. The other 12 were students. There were 4 students from Erode. They had come to Chennai after hearing about the vast destruction. They traveled all the way to join the efforts to help the needy and those affected by the monster wave.

Even as we reached Nagappatanam we saw a lot groups which had turned out with food clothes and medicines. We saw heaps of cloths on the sides of the roads. So many of them in their zeal to help had brought too many of those cloths.

This is in sharp contrast with what happened in some other part of the world which claims to be on top of the modern civilisation. There were riots in place of relief. The government which rules the world responded so late to its own citizens.
true reasons why these things happened won`t be known!!! Racism?? Lack of proper Administration system??
In India we had come to know about Tsunami only after it struck but they had the news of the disaster even couple of days before it hit the place.

Words of our president-"Perhaps not everything is right with India, but it has some positive civilisational values. I think this is one of them — our ability to come to the help of those afflicted."

Yes Focus needs to be on what is being done for those affected by Tsunami and the earthquake in Jammu Kashmir. But also shouldn't we talk of the way our people have come forward to help each other. Not only did we stop with helping our own people but we offered help to Srilanka and Indonesia after tsunami . We opened five points on our borders to Pakisthan for help after the earthquake
Critics may associate other reasons for doing so. Whatever be the reasons hinted I can see there is help rendered in some form.

Like what the President had said we should be looking at these CIVILISATIONAL VALUES and should be strengthening them.

Last year this day- Satyam to Suyam

It was 26 December 2004. A day after Christmas. I thought Suresh should be around and I called him. We both then planned for a movie. I was about to pick him at 9.We had planned for a movie at 11 at Satyam.

Surprisingly that day I had got up at 7 which was early by my standards any day. Went to my neighboring unlce`s house to read the newspaper. Sabha my cousin asked me if I experienced a tremor at 6:30- 6 45. He said it was a earthquake and he felt a slight tremor. I have been called Kumbakarna at times for my amma found it so difficult to wake me up. I had not felt the tremor.

I picked up Suresh and reached Satyam. We just read from a tea shop that 15 people were killed near the beach as water entered land. We could make no sense of the news and went on to see the movie.
Both saw the film and were having our food at a hotel. Then we heard that around 200 people were dead in Chennai marina. Suresh asked me if we should go to marina to see the place flooded with water. But I felt if the news was true there would be utter chaos at the site. So we just turned back home.


Amma had the TV on as I entered home. There was some Cricket match that day but all of us were glued to BBC, NDTV, Headlines today in turns.

Not a moment lost in telling the world a calamity had stuck. I never realized that the slight tremor that I did`nt even realize in my sleep had taken toll to this extent. The death toll all around the world as I reached home was 15000 from 200 in Chennai. I followed the story till 3 next morning. Felt so restless and just decided I might try to volunteer for the relief effort.

Next day I left for Nagapattanam with Suyam.

One year since then. I had a test today. I had the urge to write a blog this morning. Just postponed it to the evening. I had gone to the library like I have been doing before every exam. I read a couple of articles on Tsunami.

There is this one about a girl in Akkaraipettai. She believes and keeps telling people that tsunami shall strike again. When people make her understand that there were scientific reasons to disprove her she just says "Where was the science when Tsunami had struck last time". Just shows mans inability when nature strikes.

Another article says" the next tsunami of this magnitude or even worse shall hit North West American coast. It shall hit the coast within 15 minutes of warning. Last years Tsunami took more than an hour to reach Indian coast and still we were helpless. It hit Andaman within 8 minutes of the earthquake. We had time but no information then. If only we knew that a giant wave was coming towards our coast(at Taminadu) thousands of lives would have been saved and hundreds of families would have celebrated christmas this year as they did last year. Bloody Information ..

How much can man do to avoid calamity?

This picture was taken by Arko Dutta. This picture won some international award among 65000 entries. He had taken the picture for Reuters. The subject of the award winning photo is Indira.

"My Anni (sister-in-law) Maheswari was my only moral support till those cruel waves killed her," Indira says.

It is Maheswari's hand that you see in the photo.
Indira and Maheswari had gone to the beach to buy fish for lunch.

"I saw the waves, ran to a coconut tree and clung on to it. I shouted 'Anni, Anni' till I almost drowned. I was almost naked when some people rescued me. But there was no sign of my Anni. The sari you see in the photo was given by some villagers."
Two days later (on December 28), neighbours told me that Anni's body had been found on the seashore. When I saw her body, bloated beyond recognition, I could only beat my chest and wail," she says.

After having exhausted the relief, Indira was forced to pawn her ornaments.

The collector at Nagapattanam is a wonderful administrator and nice human being. His effort has been so publicly known. There are organisations like Suyam that are trying to help people in their own way. And there are gritty survivors like Indira, Anand, Bhaskar, Arulmani and many more.. They just don`t give up.

some pictures...

At akkraipettai KOVIL"the temple". Food was served to the people affected for more than a month as they had no home, no utensils and no livelihood. They helped themselves by involving in the relief work. Nagapattanam people and the local administration were praised for their quick recovery. But still needs to be done.
















The boat you see is a broken boat. You see just the front portion and there is no tail which isn`t visible. This boat I was told costs Rs 25 lakh.












In the first picture is Bhaskar. The second picture me and Anand with the school Headmaster at Akkraipettai.


















Hope the smile finds more faces. This one photo gave this kid a smile on his face.

Let the smile last longer.