Providence has a means to
remind us that we are mere mortals in spite of having advanced technologies that
we still have to endure the fury of the nature.
Chennai has been battered for last few days with incessant rains due to
multiple depressions in the bay flooding most parts of the city causing
discomfort to general public. All lakes within the city are overflowing due to inflow of rain water and added to this
the release of water from the larger lakes caused flash floods along the Adyar
river and various connected lakes and
low lying areas around theses have been flooded and the water levels reached
alarming levels submerging entire ground floors there forcing the people there
to evacuate to upper floors or to other parts of the city or to relief centres
.
In such troubling times
Chennaites rose to the occasion to take care of needy in various parts of the
city without any thoughts of caste , creed or social standing thereby setting
an example to entire India that we are humans first. People from all walks of
life came together to galvanize the relief efforts much before the government
swung into action in many localities. During the initially it was to provide
bed space for stranded people unable to reach their homes due to the flooding
of the roads. The perceived evil of the present generation such as facebook and
twitter played a very vital role throughout the relief operations and is going
on even now by letting people know of the possible bed spaces in various
localities, details of relief required or available, correct updates of the
weather by TamilWeatherman thereby squashing various rumours that were flying
around.
During the times of intense
discussions of intolerance throughout the country, Chennai floods have shown
that we are truly a tolerant society as Hindus, Muslims, Christians people of
various religion got together opening up
their places of worship to house the displaced persons in various areas of the
city. Even the affluent shopping malls opened their door for taking people
displaced and it was very heartening to see. One comment by the armed forces personnel who
are in the city for relief operations tells it all " we have seen more
volunteers than the victims " and we are proud of the people of Chennai .
Politicians as usual were missing and those
who remained behind made it a point to showcase their efforts by calling the
media and also make comments demeaning the opposition parties. The ugly side of
the story also reared its head during this distressing times by few greedy and avaricious
persons such as
Charging
huge sum of monies from already distressed people for evacuation from low lying
areas.
Charging
double of triple time of original cost for milk, drinking water or other
essential items
Snatching
of relief material being bought by common man or NGO and labelling the same as
being done by xyz party.
Relief
materials not reaching those in really need of the same.
But then taking only the
positives and sidelining the negatives Chennai floods in fact has clearly shown
that
Nature
cannot be tampered ...land being occupied by reclaiming water bodies thereby
causing flooding of those areas.
Facebook
and Twitter are not social evils.... they have been a very useful and an
important tool in the relief operations taken up by common man
Humanity
is above all religions and there was no
lines of division among populace of various religion. People have been
selflessly have been working to ensure proper relief and help reaches the
needy.
Intolerance
to religion social standing are being incited by few political parties thereby creating a divide among the
population . We Chennaites have shown all are indeed a tolerant society if we are not swayed by the political parties.
Hope that this attitude
displayed by people of Chennai at times of need is infectious and spreads to
all parts of the country .
