She cannot take the pressure, they said. Overwhelmed, she is going to destroy everyone and everything around her, they prophesied. The sheer pressure of it all was supposed to rip her apart. And yet, when the inevitable happened, she took it all in, flowing complacently along - not even rising to anticipated levels, slightly more swollen than normal, yes, but not spreading any reign of terror as it was imagined she would. My hero for the moment is the quintessential 'Malayali girl' of the poet's imagination; the 'floral essence of the mountains' - the mighty Periyar! What an ode to grace under pressure! What a revelation of unknown depths!
Swollen, muddy and yet calm: The Periyar in Aluva after the opening of shutters of Cheruthoni dam
What a week it has been! Like the rest of the Malayali universe, I too was glued to the news, watching in horrified fascination as mighty swirls of water enveloped a tiny, tiny bridge in a little-heard-of town called Cheruthoni that was suddenly the focus of our existence. We watched six palm trees standing near the bridge topple one by one and the water completely submerge the bridge itself, all the while wondering what would happen when those ferocious waters reached farther down to Ernakulam, the bustling financial capital of the state. And it wasn't just Ernakulam or Idukki. From Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram, there was untold misery spreading with muddy waters. And as the sun still plays hooky from behind giant walls of clouds, there is a collective sense of relief in the air as everywhere, the water is receding, leaving behind thousands of weary people waiting to pick up the pieces of their lives again. One image that stuck to my mind was of a cooking gas cylinder floating in the rapids before disappearing into a swirl of water. I wondered about the family it belonged to - about the home that fell apart losing bit by bit of its existence to the rising waters...the agony they would have to go through before everything falls in place again. That lone red cylinder represented so much heartbreaking loss!
Picking up the pieces: Sulekha of Wayanad salvages what she can from the ruins of her home.
Picture Courtesy: https://localnews.manoramaonline.com/wayanad/local-news/2018/08/12/w-special-page-stories-12.html
In the history of the state of Kerala, we have not heard of 24 dams raising their shutters all at the same time. Landslips, mudslides, rivers running amok...every possible disaster that could have happened, happened, spanning the entire length of the state. No district emerged unhurt. Entire homes have disappeared, along with valuable documents and fond memories. Precious lives have been swept away. Roads, bridges in disarray. Entire villages inundated and crops decimated. Pets that will perhaps never be seen again. We have not encountered anything like this in recent memory. There was a time during the last couple of scanty monsoons when I longed for the torrential downpours of our childhood - sighed that our children would never see the beauty of the monsoon as we had. Now I realise one should be careful what one wishes for - what is an idle nostalgic rumination to some of us is a disastrous loss of lives and livelihoods of others!
One heartening outcome of this entire scenario is a certain pride about the way our Government handled this situation. For once, we felt safe in our leadership; we felt we were in good hands. Information was timely and frequent. Words were matched with actions. As a person whose affiliation to political parties is neutral, I say this with surprised admiration - Pinarayi Vijayan showed himself to be a dependable leader. He showed a kind of leadership that we in India are not only not used to, but don't even think to expect! This Government has set the bar high for the future when it comes to crisis management. Every arm of the administration working in tandem, taking even the Opposition into confidence so that there was less mudslinging and more focus on what was needed to be done. Proud to be a Malayali in present-day Kerala.
While an entire state was immersed in preparations for impending doom, it was a shameful waste of time and resources when the Police were forced to curtain off views of the rising waters from bridges to prevent self-absorbed maniacs from stalling traffic or worse, getting swept away by the flood waters while they posed for selfies from the railings! That so much effort had to go into saving fools from themselves. both near the dams and the riverbanks is something we really need to introspect about! The simplest thing we can do as individuals is to deprive the depraved of that lusted-after 'like' and perhaps add a comment - #shameonyou! Then there were the alarm mongers and the manufacturers of fake videos and pictures - wasn't the human tragedy playing out all around entertaining enough for you that you had to make it more so with videos of floods in other places from other periods in time, designed to spread ever more panic and pain? Not to mention those who sought to bring in religious bigotry and political one-upmanship into the bargain. Seriously, #shameonyou!
I just read about Hibi Eden MLA canceling the Onam celebrations in his constituency in solidarity with the flood victims. I sincerely hope the State Government will follow suit. And what about us, ordinary folk? Surely we too have an obligation to be part of the process of relief and recovery!
Every year, for school Onam celebrations, I buy a pair of pattu-pavadas for my daughters - an attire they will wear once to school, a second time on actual Onam day and then never again. This year, why not let them wear the same ones they had last year? So they might have grown a few inches but surely not so dramatically that they can't fit into those pattu-pavadas for one more time (it is only for a few hours in any case). This is the time of year when we all buy those Kasavu Onappudavas that will remain untouched in our cupboards for several years until they are old enough for us to 'give to charity' without any reservations. How about this year we take out last year's finery, give them a good airing and wear them again with pride? How about we get our entire extended families to forgo the tradition of Onam gifting to those among us who really don't need it and channel those resources into the Chief Minister's Relief Fund? So too the funds that go towards Onam feasts and celebrations typically organised by offices, clubs and residents associations and the non-essential shopping we do this season to take advantage of the festive discounts on offer. How about we keep it simple this year, in solidarity with those of our brethren for whom Onam is the farthest thing on their minds right now? Every extra penny will help in putting a smile back on faces left bereft of joy by Nature's fury.
Dedicated groups of people have done a splendid task of putting together relief material for those still in camps and those who are slowly making their way back home to their shattered homes and broken lives. But as each day passes, the requirement changes. According to Muralee Thummarukudy, Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction in the UN Environment Program, whose posts I keenly follow, money is what is really needed now - to kickstart local economies; to rebuild homes and lives; to return some level of autonomy to those unused to charity. Money is also what the Government needs, to rebuild infrastructure and compensate individuals for the losses suffered. Let us strengthen the hands of our Government so we can all have Onam on our minds once again...perhaps not today, perhaps not this year but sometime in the future when we all have reason to smile again.
In this eventful year when the Periyar truly revealed the depths of her being to us, can we not open our hearts and minds and celebrate Onam in the true spirit of community and fraternity that it originally stood for?
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