(1)
For most of us life is mostly a pendulum that swings between bad and worse. Recently it swung for the worst for the Kashmiris.
Whole villages were wiped out in a blink and life vanished as if it did not exist at all. We all have seen the heart wrenching photos of the victims in the media. One picture I remember is of a father holding his injured child. The lines on his face tell the story of a hard life. As if the quake and its horror were not enough, I heard somebody tell me about a woman who found the body of her child being eaten by animals after the quake. On an individual and personal level same old thoughts burst out of the closet again. In my existential angst I asked myself those “frivolous” questions that my teachers and parents had taught me not to waste time on. How could a loving God put so many villages to ruin, how does this calamity fit in the grand scheme of things, what could God gain from taking a child from his mother or a mother from her child, leaving the ones who are alive to languish in misery. If the idea of Intelligent Design is true then how come life, that defies the law of Entropy, could be thrown at the mercy of unruly rodents? This however, is just my anguish and helplessness speaking.
On a more collective level, people are going through similar torment presently. Those in the middle of the action are complaining of slow or non-existent governmental support. There is finger pointing; there are political agendas to cater to and old scores to settle. There are some that want to benefit materially from the skewed market forces this quake has created. However, we have to realize that these negative forces are nothing new – they have always cropped up in times like this. The important question is what as individuals and private citizens should we be doing to help this situation?
On the flip side, for the thousands of benumbed survivors all the mores, rules and laws are suspended for now. There is no luxury to reflect, philosophize or even complain about what just happened as they are scrambling for basic human needs. The survivors have lost something more precious than life itself – they have lost human dignity. Many have been literally stripped of the roofs above their heads and life has become a day-to-day struggle for the last morsel beneath the sputtering wings of rescue choppers; that is, if you are lucky enough to get even that much. For them it is going to be a lifelong effort of rebuilding and recovering.
(2)
Nietzsche once said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” I firmly believe in the infinite resilience of human spirit. However, at this hour strength will only come through unity and personal sacrifice without any finger pointing. Human beings have exhibited some basic and common qualities throughout the ages. The beauty of these qualities is that they work regardless of your beliefs, ideologies and personal biases. In times like this courage, hope and compassion is our only recourse on a collective level. It was courage that won the day for the underdogs at every turn in history. It was the hope of finding the Promised Land that kept the Children of Israel going in the desert for forty years and it was the compassion that led the Insar in Medina to declare brotherhood with total strangers like the Muhajirun. On an individual note we need to ask ourselves two simple questions before we do anything – is my action going to help the situation in any way, shape or form? If not is it going to be harmful to our collective efforts? The time for indictment, incrimination and retribution can come later. Everybody needs to do his own soul searching and find his own answers to these questions. In the end I do strongly believe that eventually this phoenix will rise from its ashes.
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