An eventful August (2018)
Hi all,
"Rain rain go away,
Come again after a long time,
We the people of little Kerala
Want to lead our normal lives !!!"
Onam, the festival of Kerala is round the corner, and this is the first time in my entire life that I find no Keralaite including myself is in a mood to celebrate it. August, the month of Onam was a witness to the largest ever floods in Kerala since 1924! As I write this, the rescue operations which was there for more than a week just got over and the actual picture of damage caused by the waters will be staring when people go back to what they once called 'a home'. Many of the kutcha and pukka houses were completely destroyed, and even though many of the houses in the low-lying areas remained intact, all the furniture and other items purchased with their hard-earned money were mercilessly destroyed and this includes their private vehicles also. Human causalities are comparatively less, and though many of them are thankful that they are alive, rebuilding their lives from the scratch , from the slushy mud which invaded their houses is a monotonous task for which there is little help available around. In Kerala, normally there is a shortage of labour, and the labor costs are high. The labor shortage is usually filled by the workers from the Northern states like Bihar, UP, Maharashtra as for them, Kerala is Gulf country. Kerala needs all the support from everywhere to get back to track as soon as possible. Kerala's favorite King Mahabali who 'visits' Kerala annually does not want to see his favourite kingdom in a ravaged condition. Many of the communities outside Kerala, including ours in our complex, have cancelled the Onam celebrations this year, and have diverted the collected money towards relief work. As everybody feels united, forgetting all the petty differences, to lend a helping hand, I could not help notice that there is another kind of 'flood' that has seeped in. The flood of all kinds of emotions including hatred, spitting venomous, pent up words and abuses on the other communities, showing insensitivity and mocking at the calamity. Some attribute the disaster as the anger expressed by Lord Ayyappa on the possible ruling that women of all ages be allowed entry into Sabarimala!! Some say that it is because Kerala eats beef!! While all these reasoning sound absurd, there is a strange case of a man who lost his job in LuLu mall (Oman) as he made an utterly insensitive comment on a post in the atmosphere charged with emotions!! It invited all kinds of wrath from people all around him that he disabled his Fb account. It is being studied whether the impact of floods could have been reduced if there was sufficient planning based on the weather forecast and also if the encroachment on nature should have been careful. This year, many districts of Kerala received excess rainfall and many dams were already near the brim during July. Maybe, the damage could have been reduced if some water was released earlier trusting the weather forecast for the future. Whatever maybe the reasons, the damage is done and the rebuilding is a huge task ahead. It is again a sort of comfort to see people from all walks of life coming together, forgetting their differences, to help this ravaged state. The spirit of humanity is alive and this time Onam is 'celebrated' in a different way!
August of 2018 is also the month when 2 mammoth political personalities bid adieu to the world. M Karunanithi, who was multifaceted personality, forerunner of Dravidian movement, an orator, writer, film personality, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 5 terms passed away on August 7th leaving a void in the DMK party. It is to be seen as to how the party will fare in future because one of his sons, MK Stalin, who is the current leader of the party, is not as popular as his father. In Tamil Nadu, some sort of drama always surrounds when the death of these political personalities occur. There was a political tussle among DMK and AIADMK when there was a proposition to bury Karunanidhi's body in Marina beach which was cleared by the High Court of Tamil Nadu. I hope no more political personalities will be buried in that beach from now on, lest it would be known as political crematorium! Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also know as 'Bhishma Pitamah' of BJP party passed away last week. He was a gentleman to the core that everybody loved to love him. He was a great poet, orator and played a major role in trying to resolve the Indo-Pak conflict by introducing the bus journey to Lahore. I feel I have personally missed a soft-spoken good politician. This month also saw the death of Nobel prize winning writer of Indian Origin, VS Naipaul. Also, as I finish this article, India's famous journalist and one-time ambassador to UK, Kuldeep Nayyar passed away, few hours back after a brief illness. All these four personalities have lived their lives, earned their space in the world and died at a ripe age. This is also the month of Asian Games happening in Jakartha, where there is a lot of scope for Indian contingent to win medals. One more week in this month is left, and how eventful/uneventful will it be is for everyone else to be seen.
Take care and happy festivals ahead,
Deepa.
"Rain rain go away,
Come again after a long time,
We the people of little Kerala
Want to lead our normal lives !!!"
Onam, the festival of Kerala is round the corner, and this is the first time in my entire life that I find no Keralaite including myself is in a mood to celebrate it. August, the month of Onam was a witness to the largest ever floods in Kerala since 1924! As I write this, the rescue operations which was there for more than a week just got over and the actual picture of damage caused by the waters will be staring when people go back to what they once called 'a home'. Many of the kutcha and pukka houses were completely destroyed, and even though many of the houses in the low-lying areas remained intact, all the furniture and other items purchased with their hard-earned money were mercilessly destroyed and this includes their private vehicles also. Human causalities are comparatively less, and though many of them are thankful that they are alive, rebuilding their lives from the scratch , from the slushy mud which invaded their houses is a monotonous task for which there is little help available around. In Kerala, normally there is a shortage of labour, and the labor costs are high. The labor shortage is usually filled by the workers from the Northern states like Bihar, UP, Maharashtra as for them, Kerala is Gulf country. Kerala needs all the support from everywhere to get back to track as soon as possible. Kerala's favorite King Mahabali who 'visits' Kerala annually does not want to see his favourite kingdom in a ravaged condition. Many of the communities outside Kerala, including ours in our complex, have cancelled the Onam celebrations this year, and have diverted the collected money towards relief work. As everybody feels united, forgetting all the petty differences, to lend a helping hand, I could not help notice that there is another kind of 'flood' that has seeped in. The flood of all kinds of emotions including hatred, spitting venomous, pent up words and abuses on the other communities, showing insensitivity and mocking at the calamity. Some attribute the disaster as the anger expressed by Lord Ayyappa on the possible ruling that women of all ages be allowed entry into Sabarimala!! Some say that it is because Kerala eats beef!! While all these reasoning sound absurd, there is a strange case of a man who lost his job in LuLu mall (Oman) as he made an utterly insensitive comment on a post in the atmosphere charged with emotions!! It invited all kinds of wrath from people all around him that he disabled his Fb account. It is being studied whether the impact of floods could have been reduced if there was sufficient planning based on the weather forecast and also if the encroachment on nature should have been careful. This year, many districts of Kerala received excess rainfall and many dams were already near the brim during July. Maybe, the damage could have been reduced if some water was released earlier trusting the weather forecast for the future. Whatever maybe the reasons, the damage is done and the rebuilding is a huge task ahead. It is again a sort of comfort to see people from all walks of life coming together, forgetting their differences, to help this ravaged state. The spirit of humanity is alive and this time Onam is 'celebrated' in a different way!
August of 2018 is also the month when 2 mammoth political personalities bid adieu to the world. M Karunanithi, who was multifaceted personality, forerunner of Dravidian movement, an orator, writer, film personality, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 5 terms passed away on August 7th leaving a void in the DMK party. It is to be seen as to how the party will fare in future because one of his sons, MK Stalin, who is the current leader of the party, is not as popular as his father. In Tamil Nadu, some sort of drama always surrounds when the death of these political personalities occur. There was a political tussle among DMK and AIADMK when there was a proposition to bury Karunanidhi's body in Marina beach which was cleared by the High Court of Tamil Nadu. I hope no more political personalities will be buried in that beach from now on, lest it would be known as political crematorium! Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also know as 'Bhishma Pitamah' of BJP party passed away last week. He was a gentleman to the core that everybody loved to love him. He was a great poet, orator and played a major role in trying to resolve the Indo-Pak conflict by introducing the bus journey to Lahore. I feel I have personally missed a soft-spoken good politician. This month also saw the death of Nobel prize winning writer of Indian Origin, VS Naipaul. Also, as I finish this article, India's famous journalist and one-time ambassador to UK, Kuldeep Nayyar passed away, few hours back after a brief illness. All these four personalities have lived their lives, earned their space in the world and died at a ripe age. This is also the month of Asian Games happening in Jakartha, where there is a lot of scope for Indian contingent to win medals. One more week in this month is left, and how eventful/uneventful will it be is for everyone else to be seen.
Take care and happy festivals ahead,
Deepa.
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