We First Create Tragedies and Then We Mourn it! Be it the Bhopal Gas Tragedy or the Floods in Uttarakhand!

I remember the night of 2^nd December 1984 for two reasons –firstly, for the great relief, we – the first year students got because of the Fresher’s Night – marking the end of the long testing period of ragging. And secondly, for the worst-ever industrial accident of our times – the Bhopal Gas tragedy!

In the morning of 3^rd December 1984 – we woke up relaxed – as ragging period was over! Being Monday, we had our classes and we were looking forward for attending our classes and going around the college without any fear of seniors. But, we saw something very unusual– number of local men, women, children were seen in our campus – confused and exhausted. Only then did we know about the unfortunate tragedy that had struck Bhopal. While we were celebrating our newly found freedom, thousands died and thousands were fighting an invisible enemy that was choking them to death. We remained unaffected primarily because of the wind direction (and also our college MACT - now MANIT- is far and located on a hill).

On knowing about the extent of tragedy thru Radio and Doordarshan, we all decided to skip college and rushed to the nearby hospitals. I still remember my visit to Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal with my friends on 3^rd December 1984 – the chaos in the campus with hundreds of men and women, young and old, some dead and some writhing in pain with badly swollen red eyes crying for their lives– still make me shudder with pain. Same was the situation at Hamidia Hospital and other hospitals that our college mates visited to help the victims. The previous night i.e. on 2^nd December 1984 – the leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas from Union Carbide proved too costly for many precious lives. Thousands died, thousands who could survive still suffer from severe ailments and it is learnt that a large number of mothers who were exposed to MIC gave birth to babies with congenital defects! Images of truckloads of dead bodies that I saw, still remains etched deeply in my memory. It hurt me, I still feel the pain.

It is learnt that on investigation it was found that scheduled maintenance, routine inspection, timely action would have saved these lives! Precautions -as simple as that! Alas, we do not learn!

Such accidents keep on happening under different settings, may be at different scales – killing one or ten or more - in a small explosion at one of the small crackers factory of Sivakasi or the big ones that shook Jaipur due to fire in IOC depot or the landslides of various magnitudes that keep taking place along the rail and road routes in hilly terrain. All such accidents could be prevented, provided we learnt from the past experiences.

Only we are to be blamed for the recent tragedy at Kedarnath and other parts of Uttarakhand - cloud bursts and landslides in hilly areas are known phenomena. Hence, any development plan in such area must take care of such natural events and happenings and should be planned for the worst. But, who has the time to devote time for such things.

As third world country, for India and Indians - money is precious and lives are cheap. Money has to be minted at any cost – be it at the individual level, municipality level, district level, state level or national level – forgetting the safety aspects and lives of common citizens. The ordinary lives are in such a large number that lives lost in such accidents do not matter much apart from making headlines and catching attention in a sensational fashion by the electronic media only until it sells and grabs the desired TRPs.

In the last three years, I have been visiting Himachal Pradesh very frequently and during these visits during summer, monsoon and winter – one thing has been common – landslides along the road! Within a stretch of say sixty kilometres of hilly track that I travel by road, during summer landslides are very occasional and at much smaller scale, in monsoons I have witnessed  on an average four to five landslides of enough magnitude to shake your confidence and during winters the frequency and magnitude again reduces. During these visits, what I have noticed is that the hills are primarily of soil embedded with rounded gravels of varying sizes – typical of those found on the riverbed and hence, these hills are not rock solid but loose and very much susceptible to landslides especially during the monsoon. As far as my understanding goes, these hills need lot of support at the denuded edges in order to support their own weight and minimize landslides. My common sense says that geographically speaking these hills are not made of volcanic eruptions but out of the movement of section of the earth forcing the planes and riverbed into various folds and bends exposing years and years of deposits made on the riverbed in multi layers to rise high and take shape of hills. On the denuded side of the hills – along the serpentine roads – where the hills have been cut to make space for the road, one can see from a distance a number of parallel layers one over the other tilted and rising from the ground to form the hill. These hills are fine examples for the geography teachers to educate their school students about the sedimentation process and faults and folds.

While it is interesting to see and appreciate these layers as a layman, what disturbs me is that barring some reinforced stretches along the open side of the road; the other side where the hills have been cut to make space for the road remains exposed for most of the stretch. This makes them highly susceptible for landslides during the monsoon as the exposed side of these hills become weak because of exposure to rains and they start falling under their own weight.

I wonder why the reinforcement of exposed side of the hills have been overlooked? May be because no civil engineer or the government gave it a thought? It is highly improbable. High costs could be one reason. Nevertheless, that is not a good enough reason to barter for human lives and willfully play with the environment.

The tragedy that struck Uttarakhand as a result of bad weather in the month of June 2013 got more pronounced and deadly just because of the mindless development (sic) of the hills – to mint money – at all levels. Had there been no construction alongside the riverbanks, had there been reinforcements along the denuded side of the hills, had there been genuine concern for the environment, had there been contented greed and had there been some consideration for human lives – such devastation could have been avoided.

Now, whatever relief package is announced, Uttarakhand won’t be same. Post this tragedy, the roads may be rebuilt, the hotels may again rise, the tourists may again flock to the revered Kedarnath Temple, the elections may be won, money would be minted at different levels and those who didn’t  lose anything in this tragedy may forget all this after a while. However, the damages that environment has suffered, thousands of lives that perished, thousands of those who lost their near and dear ones, their pain, their suffering cannot be reversed!

It is high time that the Central and State governments review the environmental and development related policies, monitor them, implement them with sincerity – without looking for short term gains. Today, in the name of development – whatever is being done is not enough. All the stakeholders need to rise above their petty personal gains and contribute whole heartedly to the cause of the common people and the environment. First, we should develop as a responsible citizen – the prime requirement to collectively develop as a Nation.

My heart goes out to all the lives that perished and their aggrieved family members. May your sacrifice help us in waking up from the deep slumber! Let us rise!

Do not buy gold!

We Indians are known to have special liking for gold. The luster of this yellow metal seems to have a never ending hypnotic effect on us Indians, especially the women who never seem to get bored of it! Even men are attracted to it; for instance - Bappi da- the musician- whom you might have never seen without a kilo of it on his body. Many of our cricketers love to show off their heavy yellow metal chains – while bowling to the opposition – as if to demorallise them more by their heavy gold chains, rather than by their bowling strength. Lure of gold has known to ruin many a homes and lives, but despite living in the spiritual India - we as an Indian have been always blinded by its  ‘chamak-damak’. It is time to say goodbye to it and learn to live.

It reminds me about a story, probably from the collection of Panchatantra, in which a man was always worried about the safety of his riches and he always spent his nights tossing on the bed – fearing that someone would take away all his valuables. One of his trusted friend suggested him to exchange all his  riches with gold bars – so that it would become manageable for him to stock and keep a vigil. He did so and hid it in his home, but the worry that someone would steal all his life time earnings -kept him awake. It continued for more than a week. Then he called his trusted friend and told him about his problem of insecurity. This time his friend suggested him to carry all his gold bars to the jungle and burry it there and to ensure that no one sees him doing it. He asked him not to disclose it to anyone – to ensure that the gold remains safe and secured in the jungle. In the dead of night he bundled all his gold bars in a packet and left for jungle, hid the packet under a tree returned relieved. He had sound sleep after a long time, for a few nights. After a while he thought of checking the gold bar packet, he made a round of the spot and came relieved on seeing that – the earth under the tree was not disturbed by anyone. He would then occasionally visit the jungle and glance through the area to ensure that no one dug it out. Months passed. One fine morning during one of his visits to the spot, he found that the earth has been dug out and the gold packet has been removed. He returned home, shocked and shattered – but he didn’t disclose it to anyone. A few days later, his trusted friend visited him who was shocked to see his poor health and know the loss of his riches. The friend gave him solace and asked him not to worry. The friend requested the man to take him to the spot to recheck it. They reached the spot and to ensure about the gold bars, they dug here and there – but found nothing -the gold bars were not there. The man was inconsolable now. The trusted friend asked him a few questions – like what was the size of the packet, what was the weight of the packet, etc. Next day the friend returned to the spot with a packet in his hand and the man following him. He asked the man to fill the box with stones lying there. Upon filling the box with stones, he sealed the box and hid it at the same spot. The friend turned to the man, there lies your gold – buried like before, be relaxed and live happily now! The man looked perplexed. The friend put his hands over his shoulders and asked him to imagine that the packet buried by them is full of gold. He said that the gold that was earlier buried there for months together was actually of no use to him, as all these months he didn’t need it for any of his requirements and would not require it in future too. It had no actual value to him and hence it was worthless. The friend asked him to imagine that the stones that were now buried by them is pure gold – and not to fear anymore for its theft. It changed the life of the man, who lived happily thereafter.

I have narrated this story just to give an analogy – of the buried gold bars particularly with bank lockers that one keeps and maintains to store all kind of gold jewelry accumulated with all the hard work – which keeps lying there for years and years – does it make any sense to hoard the gold mindlessly!  Why not put your money to a more productive use? It is said that flow is life, same is true for money – let it flow in the form of donations, service, education, business and anything that benefits the society. And anything that benefits the society, benefits you!

Coming to Indian economics on import of gold - Gold’s share in total import bill of the country has gone up from 8.1 per cent in 2001-02 to 9.6 per cent in 2010-11. In value terms, it has risen from US $ 4170.4 million in 2001-02 to US $ 33875.7 million in 2010-11. A growth rate of 63.5 percent is witnessed for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. During the same period the Petroleum, Crude and products – occupying the numero uno position in terms of share of import bill has marginally declined from 31.0% to 30.1%. Import bill of gold is certainly weighing us down.

Concern of the government, expressed by Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram in urging the people to not buy gold for one year and that gold is not the safest investment is worth noting. I can’t say about the safe investments, but certainly let us not waste and block our hard earned money in buying and hoarding gold.

Let our money flow, let it have life, let it make lives!