No subtitles for death stories

Nowadays it’s become a trend to measure the impact or severity of an ill-fated event by the death toll.

I always used to ponder loss of a life can never be reimbursed, whether it’s a life of one man or thousands. Now, sometime I surprise how many should die to make a calamity deadly enough to send a condolence to our heart. Is it because we have been made immune to be very comfortable of seeing deaths and loss around us every day in news flash? Or it’s because the valuation of a human life is reduced to a level, where people die in hunger or overeating, people die in stampede or mass-accident, people die in drought or natural calamity it does not kindle us?

That day I was in a discussion forum, where I heard comments like ‘Oh only 7 people killed, then it’s not that devastating. In the year of 1999, the cyclone killed 10,00 people!’. It was about the recent storm Phailin which hit coastal Odisha and Andhra. And I was surprised why would the number of people killed seems so less to them when this has destroyed the crop of 2400 crores! The poor farmers have roughed their lives, taken loan to by seeds and lands and ploughed those harvest out of their sweat. The missing fishermen’s families are still waiting for them to return home or they have lost their hope. The loss of house, shelters, boats, livestock, crops and many more - to measure the loss more people should have died? Does a big number make enough impact to feel their agony?

If I remember correctly, during 2013 Kumbh mela some 40 people died, and recently in Ratangarh near Delhi 112 people were killed and many more gravely injured. Both because of the mass- stampede during religious events. I saw people cursing ‘Why do they overcrowd these places! ’, little bothered of the gravity of the accident and the personal losses.

According to a latest survey, 13000 people die in train accident every year in India. Nowadays, when the news channels flashes such news we stand in front of television for 2 minutes, listen to the death toll and move on. Why?

I remember collecting funds on behalf of an organization for Uttarakhand fund in a known friends group. The Uttarakhand flood was no doubt one of the most devastating natural calamities in India in recent times. And I am not going to explain the suffering of the people who fought hard to survive. Their first reaction was “How much shall I pay? If you guarantee that my money will reach, then only …”. This friend circle of mine is well-established and affluent enough to donate a minuscule portion of their hard-earned wedges. And I could never guarantee them the genuineness of the need.

Death tolls are not as interesting as Stock market Index and I too fail to remember how many deaths do I read in newspaper every morning. It has become like a chronic disease and no cure.

But I am not losing hope that one day I will not stop by the television sipping a cup of coffee and move on. One day I will not write this blog and will be on the other side hand in hand, to bring the survivals to life and death to its deserved condolence.

Just wish I get to know my way.