Mother and son

When the tsunami struck, a mother and her two young sons were caught in the swelling waters. As tsunami ravaged the area, she realized that she could not stay above water holding both her sons. She was left with a tough choice – she had to decide which one to keep and which one to let go – she could hold only one child against the waters. She decided to keep the younger child and let go of the other son. Another woman nearby tried to hold this boy above water, but she too had to let go after she started going under.
The mother had braced herself for the loss of her son, but she had a pleasant surprise. The son was found later clinging to a door, alive and well except for a few bruises and a gash in his leg. It isn’t hard to think of the difficult situation the mother had to face. We would never want to find ourselves in such a situation.
What about the son? What did her think when his mother let him go with the water? Did he think she loved the younger one more? How did he feel when he got back to his mother? Did he realize the tough choice she had to make or did he think she didn’t love him enough?
The mother will have a tougher task ahead of her, convincing her son that she loves him too. I wonder how she would cope with her own and the child’s trauma. I pray and hope for the child to be out of this trauma and lead a normal life. What really comes out of it, I may never know.
Am I thinking too much? Can’t help it.

The day the calm and beautiful sea boiled over

December 26 was a day that redefined life for millions of people. It was a day in which people, not just those directly affected, realized the volatile nature of life on earth. It was the day in which many of our ideas on life and the nature of the sea changed forever. For most of us, the beach is the favorite hangout and there could be nothing more splendid than the sea.
Approx 10 minutes was all that it took for this change and the cause was the tsunami that ravaged the coasts of a number of Southeast Asian countries including our coast. The body count is rising by the tens of thousands each passing day. Today it was 1.75 lakhs (175,000) and it has come so far from the initial estimate of 10,000 which now, pales in comparison. Obviously nobody had expected so much damage to be caused thousands of miles away from the epicenter.
We rarely get to see the violent side of the sea, hence it came as a surprise to a large number of people along the coast, they had not recognized the earning signs hidden in the receding sea. On Monday morning we woke up to the news of mild tremors and nobody expected the sea to surge and cause havoc hours later.
Initially, we got to hear about the number of hamlets completely washed out without a single surviving member and of people loosing most of their family members and their belongings too. Today, there were brighter stories – an entire village saved because a voluntary worker who had worked in the village earlier was in Singapore that fateful day and had called to warn the villagers on hearing the warning posted in Singapore; another hamlet was saved because a new stream was found in the vicinity and the entire village was out there at the stream; yet another village was saved because according to their folklore, the receding sea would always return with force; a young girl had saved the lives of a number of people by recognizing the warning in the receding sea. Unfortunately, such instances are few and far between. For the majority of the people, it had been as though the sea had pulled off a nasty surprise and they hadn’t found enough time to move away to higher ground. There are so many pictures these days, of people standing on the shore watching the receding tide only to find, moments later, a wall of water coming at them.
Why such a large-scale destruction? What is its significance in the larger scheme of life? How would these people cope with it – especially the fisher folk who will have to go back to the sea?

Accident prone zone

This afternoon I was on my to office. It was going as usual, and we were traveling in the Maruti Omni to office. I was reading “Code to Zero” all the way. That is how I keep myself occupied throughout the journey that last just about an hour… It was almost the end of the journey as we were coming along the SP road. I looked up and a signpost caught my eyes. it was that of a skull and 2 bones, the typical danger signal. Though I have traveled that way everyday to work, I hadn’t noticed it. Even as I was wondering why it was there, I found the next post that said, “Accident prone zone” and I said to myself “probably this is the reason”. Not a second had passed after that thought crossed my mind, I found a mini-tempo fallen on the other side of the median. Just moments ago, there had been an accident, and even as we passed by, they were carrying the driver’s body to the pavement.

I was shocked and sat there trying to collect my thoughts. Only after we had gone quite a distance, I realized that I had been one of those passengers who had passed an accident site without doing anything.

Yes, there were people already helping him. Not sure if they could help him anymore or if he was no more. Still, it came as a sickening thought, that I dint have the presence of mind to do anything, whatsoever.

This has been the overriding thought for the rest of the day and I was praying for the presence of mind is such situations. I have found myself praying for that man and his family. I have found myself wondering about the man and his family, about how he would have left home this morning and how everyone around would have expected him home in the evening or late night.

We rarely wonder about these things, do we? When we set out, we assume that we would be home safe. But, will we?

I shall place my life in my Lord’s hands and have a peaceful sleep tonight. Let me take one day at a time.