A Tale of the People

It’s painful to see something you love be torn apart. What’s even more painful is seeing it be torn down by others. An entire state is suffering and yet our countrymen can’t pass up the opportunity to give some politically/religiously charged comment.

“You eat beef and hence you deserve what you get.” “I won’t help a state full of dog killers”

Is it so hard to see people not as Hindus or Christians, or BJP or Congress, but as normal humans? Will you not extend a helping hand to a fellow being just because he/she doesn’t have the same opinion as you? Or is that too much to ask?

The media coverage doesn’t help. It portrays the situation in a such a way as to generate revenue rather than an unbiased portrayal of actual events. It’s scary that such a catastrophe that is affecting the lives of millions of people can be seen as a monetizable event. It does no justice to the actual gravity of the situation.

So let me tell you the true story.

The story takes place in a land that refuses to die. A land that refuses to quit. A land that refuses to drown.

But the story is not about the land.

It’s about the people.

It’s about the fishermen who carried out rescue operations and saved over 3000 people. It’s about the electricians who worked in the rain to make sure communications worked. It’s about the students who organized hundreds of relief camps and the distribution of various supplies. It’s about the thousands of people who used social media as a method of donation. It’s about the girl who gave her pocket money for victims of the flood.

This is a story not of despair, but of hope.

A tale of courage, not of fear.

This is Kerala’s story.

A tale of the people.

#india #journalism #naturaldisasters #kerala #media #news #floods