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..

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