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Bangalore,
Tuesday, December/28/2004.
[On the Tsunami tragedy that hit in different regions across Asia]
Dear friends,
It is with great pain and grief that I scribble down this note, in memory of all those who were the victims of Tsunami tragedy, in prayers for all those who lost their loved ones in what seemed to be Nature's cruel display on its dominance over the humans, the insignificant humans rather. We all have seen natural deaths, haven't we? And deaths due to accidents and illness too. Be it our colleagues, friends, the ones who are close to our hearts and even the people who might have ridiculed us at some point of our life. And on all such occassions it normally takes days at stretch for the reality to sink into us that a person whose physical presence was so much a part of our routine would no longer be with us for the remaining quota of our life. Then imagine that fisherman from Chennai, who could but watch, helplessly, his wife and children being taken away by the mighty ocean for absolutely no fault of his; and then wander here, there, and everywhere with a hope against hope of spotting his loved ones. I bet my life, we can't even touch one dimension of that poor fisherman's grief. His loss, his sorrow, only he knows. And with him, thousands of others on the receiving end...
Geographical separation hardly makes any difference these days. Whether it happens in the gateway of South, or in the tear drop of India or in exotic Thailand, the news on the loss of human beings like you and me - that too in multitudes - could very well upset the rhythm of our life. But sadly, it is only then that we start pondering on our role in this planet and more importantly on the insignficant nature of this life, our life. What could anyone do when the waves of the ocean slightly changed its beat, surged on to the land and carried with it hundreds of lives? Don't stare at me; I'm as clueless as you are. But don't our bloated ego at times whisper to us that we conquered the great Himalayas and that we stepped into the beautiful moon and that we have almost succeeded in creating human clones? Then why not block an ocean from crossing its boundaries? Well the fact is: we, the humans, are merely helpless bipedal creatures. And very often we forget this fact, until the Nature gives us a stroke like the one that we witnessed just under fourty-eight hours back. The world has not yet recovered from this shock. It would take time, won't it? Even a stone-hearted person would have felt deep sorrow within him while watching those pictures captured by the television crews from all around the Asian continent. Suddenly, we seem to sympathize with the victims, we seem to empathize with them, we seem to develop an inner restlessness to go out and extend our help to their dear and near. Why? Because all human beings irrespective of caste,
creed, colour and sex come from the same source and have a common goal. But over a period of time, we have forgotten the same and have been constantly striving for only materialistic achievements and personal gratification. If one abnormal act of Nature could bring about a massive destruction as the one that we saw on Sunday, then any abnormal way of living that we adapt in living out the allotted quota of our life could only bring our own destruction. We can change; we need to change. A strong sense of togetherness will only come if we all human beings strive for a noble goal. And when it comes, then all these tragedies that we would encounter in this journey of life would not be so painful
and unbearable as this, for it would be shared among all. Let's face it together.
Tragedies like this, God forbid, might happen again. We would continue to display our helplessness on all such occassions. What else can we do? But I presume, if we are able to live a simple life with a service oriented mind and a spiritual oriented goal, then we can at least mutter under our breath, on all occassions , “I have done my duty.”
My prayers for all.
-R Rajesh
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