Hail Chennai!

I happened to be in Chennai during the floods. As the rains poured incessantly, the neighbors got together and most of them narrated stories on  floods they had experienced before, however all of them unequivocally agreed that they had never ever witnessed anything like this before. One of them, an aunt who knows me since I was a child said,'why did you choose this time to come here?, wrong time!'

Wrong time? I wondered. I understood what she meant, she knew that the place I now live, there is hardly any power cut. On the contrary there was no power there for 3 days. I remembered Mark Zuckerberg's comments - "connectivity is the birth right of humans". In that context, all Chennaites had lost their birth right for more than 3 days - no mobile or phone, no TV, no internet.
There was knee deep water everywhere and her comment was apt - couldn't I have chosen some other time to visit Chennai?
Despite all this - I consider myself to be very fortunate to have been in Chennai during the floods.

Going through a calamity gives you a learning that is most valuable. I have never seen the family so closely knit and herded before. I have never heard so many funny school stories from my teenager nieces ever before. I have never had the opportunity to bind so closely withe my brother and dad before, after many years we caught up on many stories from childhood sitting around candle light. This was surely a thumps up on building family ties.

I have always witnessed Chennai as a very busy city. People are quite friendly but quite busy - they do not have much time to spare - school, office, jogging, dance class, Carnatic music, quiz class, tuition etc. etc. Kids and parents are constantly busy doing lot more - at least this is my impression. During this calamity, I saw the humane and generous side of Chennai. I saw young college students wading through water and asking each and every house if they needed any supplies - they had drinking water, milk, candles, one person even had a power bank which he had managed to charge from a car. This gave life to a few mobiles.

The area we stayed was not so very affected compared to a few other areas, so if you manage to wade through the street and reach a house, you are in safe zone. I saw one of my very orthodox neighbours invite many strangers into his house. I saw him attending to people of all caste, creed and age with a lot of happiness. He along with his wife cooked and fed many people all the three days. This had a positive effect which was infectious, several of us were on the roads providing supplies, blankets and sarees to the affected people. I had never seen so much of networking between strangers ever before.

As somebody wisely said, going through a calamity makes you reflect about your good fortune. It makes one realise that whatever we  hold valuable is after all perishable and of no use at the end.

Finally what stands good is our help and service to fellow human beings who are in need.

The Katha updanishad is one of the most beautiful updanishads that deal with this concept, Live for today, but see life from the eyes of death - from the eyes of Mithya (that which perishes)!

Chennai will arise, there's no doubt about this. Having witnessed the spirit first handed, it not difficult to predict that this ancient city of great history and culture will arise like a phoenix with even more resolution. Hail Chennai!