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The tsunami in South East Asia on December 26, 2004 killed over a hundred thousand people and shook the world. People don’t look at the sea the same way they used to.
Newspapers these days are filled with ghastly and sometimes moving images and stories of the Tsunami survivors. They are loaded with stories of courage, valiant efforts to salvage people, flooding charities on one hand, and with stories of greed, discrimination, and exploitation on the other.
As Shobhaa De – an eminent writer wrote in one of her columns just after the Tsunami – “Amazing what natural disasters reveal, about ourselves and the unpredictability that tests character – individual and national.” People who manage to save themselves from these disasters like floods and quakes often try to take an advantage of other’s inability to defend themselves.
But life is a boomerang. It gives everything back, and that too with a heavy compound interest – be it good or bad. For years and years, we have been reading and hearing proverbs like “Reap as you sow,” but sadly, many of us forget these very quickly, especially in the wake of situations like floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters.
It was the year 1979. Raman lived in Morvi, a small town on the banks of river Machhu in the western part of Gujarat state. He struggled to find a stable job in this small town, and worked on a daily-wages basis in a tiles manufacturing unit. His wife and two sons lived in the village. It was in August 1979 that the walls of the overflowing Machhu dam collapsed and flooded the town of Morvi. Waters gushed into the city and thousands of people were killed. It was one of the biggest calamities in those days, which our family also witnessed. The water level in the city was almost 15 Feet, immersing the low lying areas of the town under water. Amidst all these, Raman managed to save himself. By the time water levels lowered, most of those who survived fled to safer havens. Raman saw a torn shutter of one jewelry shop in the barren downtown market. He cold-bloodedly looted this shop, without anyone really noticing him.
Most of the times, people soon come to terms with these calamities in their own ways and life goes on, and on. Something similar happened with Raman. He started his own metal business, and flourished. He brought his wife and sons from the village. He lived a pretty decent life, expanded his business, and earned a lot of money through these years. Raman was a grandfather to three wonderful kids, one girl and two boys. By 2000, Raman had already retired, since his sons had taken the reigns of the business. He had a luxurious residence, where they all lived in a joint family. Life was going well with Raman, till the devastating earthquake happened in 2001. Earth shook at 8:45 AM on January 26th 2001, killing thousands of people across the state. It being the Republic Day of India, was a public holiday. Raman’s entire family was at home, and Raman was out to the market to buy some fresh vegetables. A few minutes after the earthquake, Raman started walking back towards his home frustrated and baffled at what happened. This was only the second natural calamity that Raman was seeing in his life, after the floods. While he was walking towards his home, he had no idea of the enormity of loss that he had incurred. Raman reached there only to find his house turned into a huge pile of debris, killing all his family members. Though he still had a lot in the bank, he lost everything. Raman had built this tree of prosperity and happiness with roots of wrong-doings and greed buried under. And when the roots are weak, however big a tree may be, it still is vulnerable to downfall.
Deep within Raman must have come to this realization. Something that came in by wrong means also went out in a similar fashion, dragging everything else with it.
Good brings good and bad brings bad, is something every one of us knows – but we fail to acknowledge the same. Human greed knows no bounds, and when we come to realization of our wrong doings, it’s almost too late!
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Tanmay N. Vora
A software quality & management professional - passionate explorer of management/leadership subjects - chooses to look at brighter side of life - loves writing.
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