Sunday, March 25, 2001		Article

NATURAL calamities have a way of bringing people together—uniting them in the face of death, devastation, suffering and hopelessness, reminding us of the futility of our dreams and the impermanence of our existence. It is heartening to see people, young and old, rich and poor, contribute to relief funds. Even Pakistan, forgetting its hostility, volunteered help. Such gestures reaffirm our faith in humanity. It is in such times that our instincts for charity find expression, making us feel nice about ourselves.

However, strange things sometimes happen in a strange world. For every act of selflessness, there is a corresponding act of greed and selfishness. Trying circumstances often expose our darker, meaner side.

While there were innumerable reports praising and highlighting the untiring and ceaseless efforts of volunteers who worked with utter disregard to their own comfort in the quake-ravaged Gujarat, there were some reports which were not as inspiring, discrediting our exaggerated claim of being an evolved species.

At Maninagar, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, residents were paying Rs 3,000 per day as rent to a private contractor for his 40-tonne crane to lift heavy concrete slabs and extricate bodies or help those buried under the rubble. Lending the crane would have meant foregoing profit. warped in his small world, he was unmoved by the gloom and indifferent to the trauma others might have been experiencing.

For pier makers it was an opportune moment to cash in on the miseries of the less fortunate. They raised the prices of piers twofold, from the existing Rs 250 to Rs 500. the huge rush of bodies to the crematoria and mourning scenes did little to tug at their hearts. For them, it was the chance of a lifetime to make money hand over fist like never before.And as we know everyone loves profits. Can't blame them for not being any different.

Some carbon-based life forms (for can they be called humans?) went about threatening and robbing the survivors of jewellery and other valuables. That they might have lost a dear one or just cremated the fulcrum of their lives was no concern of theirs.

A report focussed on the inmates of old-age homes in Gujarat who were forgotten by their children and relatives the entire time. Frantic, some of the elderly made calls to their children to enquire about their well-being, but their concern went unreciprocated.

According to a report, certain upper class Gujaratis did not want their tents pitched next to those belonging to the lower classes. Such vanity and at such a delicate time! Always the caste factor at work.

a college student who accompanied swiss rescue troops to Gujarat was shocked at the official apathy and the darker face of Indian bureaucracy—all experienced first hand. A junior airport official asked a team of doctors from Indore to pay him Rs 1 lakh to arrange a godown for storing the huge stock of medicines they had brought with them.

Representatives of a multinational telecom company were asked to take permission from the IT Secretary to use the over 100 wireless sets the company had donated for relief work.

A French plane carrying 40 doctors and 7 tonnes of medicines and relief material was made to hover in the air for nearly four hours only because the officials did not know whether to divert it to Ahmedabad, Bhuj or Bachau. All this as people were dying and time was running out.

His experiences made him remark that besides a lesson in disaster management, politicians and bureaucrats would do well with a lesson in humanity. Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary actions. For once official procedure should have been given a go-by to aid the relief operations. Red tape should have been the last thing to have frustrated the efforts of relief missions.

Some officials of the relief team from Haryana actually returned with Swiss tents and other imported goodies meant for the quake victims!These were some of the incidents which came to light. There may have been several ignoble acts that went unreported.

Makes one wonder if we deserve kindness; if our concern ends with our contributions. What makes us believe we may not be the next in line, anxiously awaiting any form of relief. Why do we think the man standing before his collapsed house and wailing over his loss can never be us. Do we truly empathise and commiserate with others in their grief?

Neitzsche said every tragedy that doesn't kill us makes us stronger. But does it really ?