There Cannot Be a Bigger Tragedy Than This

I read about this tragic incident almost a decade ago. It was just a small five line news item that appeared in a local news paper in my city of Hyderabad, India. But it still keeps haunting me even today. I very strongly felt that the whole world should stand up and take notice of this great tragedy and offer their salutations to the brave lady involved in this. I tried to visualize the whole tragic drama with my creative eye and penned it down properly in a narrative form for the convenience of the reading world.

Please go through..

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It happened in the August month of 1999 in an average coastal town of Orissa,India..

It was a town with around ten thousand population...

It was raining cats and dogs there for almost a week..

Life to say the least was paralyzed.

The communication link with the outside world was cut off long ago..

And…

On that eventful day..

It was around 5 AM in the morning..

Almost all the people of the town woke up shocked as they found pools of water flowing around them with a terrifying noise.Before they could realize what was happening, the levels of water started rising drastically and there was no escape route for them as the heavily gushing water was hampering their movements…

Still they managed to run out of their houses but pathetically found themselves stranded in more and more of flood water..
The water at that time was up to the waist level and was gradually rising.

The shocked many tried to reach that handful of high rise buildings in the town only to find them overflowing with people.

While the lucky ones could barge in…those unlucky were shunted out…

And it was still very heavily raining at that time..

With the passing of time..

Rains didn’t stop..

The rising of water levels didn’t stop.

And the plight of the people didn’t stop..

All the streets were full with people and full with water..

Some people were trying their best to come out of the water but the level was constantly rising and was making life miserable for them.

By then almost all of them have very silently realized that they are slowly heading towards a country from whose Bourne no traveler has ever returned..

But there were still some people shouting for help ..a few some were weeping out of fear.

While some were down low spirited…A few some were going hysterical…

Children and the old aged were the worst affected as one by one of them started dying a silent death…

A helpless death..

An unnoticed silent death…

Unfortunately so..

All the remaining of them there wanted to live…

Just live. Do something. But live..

Helplessness….Dddaammmnnn helplessness was bogging them down..

Questions and questions were frustrating them..

Do..??What to do..???How to do..????

How..how…..??????????????

All they want from God at that moment was..

Life. Just life. Nothing..Nothing else…

No riches,no money…No egos,no jealousy…

No holier than thou attitudes..No one-upmanship..

No false shows of prestige…

No clashes,no rivalry,no religion,no exploitation in the name of God.no superiority,no inferiority,

Nothing..nothing..And nothing else..

But life and life alone..

But less do they know

That..

In the court of Nature there is no room for appeal..

But still they were doing their best to survive.. They were praying for life.. Praying for those helping hands..

Praying loudly, praying silently.

Praying and weeping..

Weeping and praying…

Praying for their survival and weeping for their loved ones…

They were praying and praying and praying..

Thuddddddddddddd..

Before they could realize with what force death strikes when it strikes..

It was all over..

All their dreams, all their plans, all their aspirations..

With one blow of death..

With one deadly blow of D…E…A..T…H…H…H…H

Were washed out in a moment…

A sudden rush of water flowing from a broken dam nearby, struck them silently wiping them away off their feet..

The water that was so essential for the survival of humanity on this planet has silently eliminated them…

And after that…

There was absolute silence. ..

Fearful silence..

With only the sound of water echoing around..

Just the sound of free flowing water..

Creating terror...

That’s all..

…………..

And..

And..

From that dangerously flowing deadly waters..

And from among those dead..

Rose a woman..

A poor young woman in her late twenties..

Rose like a phoenix out of the ashes..

During all the painful time..

She was fighting..Waging a lone battle..

She just did not remain silent and immobile by offering prayers to the invisible..

She was trying to move..

Come what may..

Move..

And then  finally she moved..

She was a Telugu speaking lady from the Srikaulam district of Andhra Pradesh..

She was undeterred by the fury of water around her..

Unmoved by the dead bodies of those who till a moment ago were her friends and neighbors..

Unfazed by the calamity that just served a deadly blow..

She has complete faith in herself that she can move and she knows it very clearly that she has to move and move ahead out of that gory place….

Because..

She has a goal…

She has a strong purpose to live..

So she moved and moved briskly from there..

Mustering all the courage. Gathering all the strength..

Leaving all the dead bodies behind..

Leaving all the people and the town..

And swam and swam and swam

Swam across the flow of that fearfully flowing water,

Swam across every hurdle..

Swam across every street and corner..

Pushing away all the dead bodies..

Not only of her fellow human beings but also of their cattle..

She swam..

Braving the storm..Braving the floods…

Braving against the fury of nature and the fury of God..

And moved ahead…

Till she reached a lonely standing Palm tree..

It was a tall and lonely Palm tree eagerly waiting to receive that brave lady..

After reaching the tree, she paused.. Looked at it once..

After making sure that the tree can give her enough protection..

She moved towards it and then slowly and confidently reached to the top of the tree and lay settled there..

Then..

And…

Then..

She

Very fondly..

Very gently..

And very carefully..

Kissed her beloved four year old son..

Her goal..Her Life..The sole purpose of her existence..

For whom she braved all that ferocious storm and its fury..

Braved the nature and God.

Braved everything and did everything..

...........................................................................

Continued in my next posting"There Cannot Be A Bigger Tragedy Than This"-Part-Two..

This Man Shattered Me

Yes friends you read it right..
This man really shattered me,influenced my thoughts..changed my thought process and fine tuned my mind radio by injecting a fresh breath of new life into it..
Before i proceed any further about him you need to know something about me…
 I have this very passionate hobby of practicing Homoeopathy just to help myself,my family and a few of those relatives in their hour of crisis..
I have inherited this hobby from my beloved Father but i practice it with more intensity and research today, as one personal problem(A severe bout of depression,melancholy and intra psychic stress  shook me beyond repair and has almost consumed my life..) i had three years ago forced me to do so..
During those depressing times i used to walk miles and miles from one lane to the other just to ward off those feelings of dangerous self consumption and destruction..
I have consulted many doctors and spent lot of money but my problem not only remained unsolved but also aggravated with every passing day..i visited even a renowned homoeopath in mumbai but without much help..
With a good number of experiences in our family history i was sure Homoeopathy has a cure for my problem and I only need to tap the right medicine..
Left with no other option i have decided to cure myself and have done extensive research on various diseases and problems,studied several books on Homoeopathy in those silent hours of night and ended up in finding solution not only to my problem but also to some rare and chronic problems..
Through my study i found that mind is the root cause of all problems in this world and i focussed my study more on psychosomatic disorders and in fact found medicines that can heal many psychic disorders  including insanity..
After that whole of wide extensive study,i started to cure my self and achieved hundred percent success rate..it gave me immense confidence..then i started helping my family members.personal friends and other relatives in getting relief from their problems.
And in the process i cured diseases like sinusitis,migraine, haemorrhoids, erysipelas,chronic constipation etc.. but the notable cure among all these was schizophrenia with which a distant relative of mine was suffering for a considerable amount of time..
By the word of mouth my popularity spread and..
One day..
THIS MAN Called me..
He is the owner of the building where my niece stays..
My niece Priya who is a satisfied patient of mine told him to consult me for a chronic skin problem

with which he was suffering for almost a decade and half..

So one day he called me..
Initially i was reluctant to take the case because skin problem needs constant follow up and a regular study and time..he already visited several homeopaths including Batra’s but in vain..this made me more apprehensive but he requested me to see him once..
As he is an elderly retired man of 68 i couldn’t say no and asked him to come to my home the following Sunday..
Such a rich man of 68 years of age ,owner of a building, came to my home on a bicycle all the way from his home covering a good distance of 8 kms ..
He was a humble looking simple man in a more humble attire..
He introduced himself as Panduranga rao a retired railway employee..
To begin with..
I posed a routine question that whether he has any diseases like sugar,b.p etc for which he replied in negative..
He told me”..baabu..i dont have any problem..i don’t smoke,drink or eat non veg..i do not even drink coffee out side..i am a kannada brahmin and am only fond of pickles..”
Showing me his left hand wrist he told me”..this is causing me a lot of irritation as there is terrible itching..”
I observed a small and hard black scar in the corner of his wrist..
That is all..
I gave him a combination of medicines and asked him to report to me after a fortnight..
He went off and called me exactly after a fortnight and told me that initially there was some relief and later aggravation..
I asked him to come the following sunday..
He came..and with one statement changed my outlook towards life and recharged me with tons of optimism sufficient enough for a life beyond life..
……….
Please read the exact conversation..
First I made him comfortably seated..
And later checked his progress..
And asked him..”..how r u feeling now..”
He said”..Though there was initial aggravation am feeling better now..”
I very casually said”..good..but dont worry.. Treatment for skin problems is a time consuming process and aggravation is a good sign that the medicine is working..so i will give u some more doses of medicine and use them..am sure u will feel better..”
As i was preparing the medicine mixing some German dilutions he was silently observing me..
He said..”u r using so many costly medicines and ur not taking any money from me..”
I smiled and said”..this is not my profession and only a hobby..and by God’s grace I can afford to buy these medicines..i want people to be happy..thats all”and finished the process of preparation..
I was about to hand them over to him..
That time he told me..
Told me something that shook me off the ground and shattered me to the core..
“Baaboo..the last time when i came u asked me whether i have any disease..i said no..but i forgot..only after going home i could recollect..four years ago I had throat cancer and took thirty cycles of treatment(friends,pathetically speaking, i do not know what is a cycle of treatment and what comprises a cycle but for sure i know that it is worse than a hell)..now am alright..my father and fore fathers lived beyond eighty five and if God blesses i will also live up to 90..”
I thought I was listening..
But i was shocked..benumbed..speechless..
I didn’t know how to react..but only found him looking at me with that same enigmatic smile..
He got up and shaking my hands with a thanks sought my permission to leave….
With a most idiotic smile on my face i nodded my head..
Though customary i even forgot to see him off ..
Finally..
He left….
Leaving me shattered..shattered and shatteredddd…
My dear friends..
In our day to day life we come across scores of people who will bore us with their personal problems and if it is a small health related problem they will actually kill us by speaking volumes about the pain they are going through..
But here..
This man…
Does not remember that he had cancer

once..

Does not remember that he had passed through a terrible hell of thirty painful cycles of chemotherapy(????)..
And also..
Does not even remember that he almost knocked on the doors of death and was mercifully kicked back by GOD..
Surprisingly so he wants to live for ninety years..
Wow..What a man and what a state of mind..
My dear friends..
What else can i say..???Except one thing..
May God bless him..
That Is All…………………………………………………………….
Hellllooooooooooo…
SHATTEREDDDD…??????????????????