By D.N.Singh
In complete detachment from the realities at the bottom, post Fani, what offers a fabulous mix of disorder is the reporting in various newspapers and electronic media. Let alone the plight of lakhs of people coolly braving the stings of the ravages, there are some interesting collage of headlines those lead us nowhere. Both good and bad, though.
One of the good news that made a positive take-away is that some teams from Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Bengal including a team from the L & T ( a company with a proven credential for its quality delivery) have been pressed into the service of restoration in the two majorly affected cities Bhubaneswar and Puri. Works on removal of the green debris, salvaging of the power sector and other necessary things those require immediate attention are going on. That’s a respite long awaited for, albeit it could have been geared up a day or two after the oceanic outrage through Fani.
One headline in a nationally reputed English daily read that ‘ Cyclone-hit areas may not get power, net for a few days more’. Which is bit oxymoronic in essence as several headlines in last one week in the same newspaper had played up achievements of the dispensation despite severe odds. (Which is a pertinent point that after such a massive ravage normalcy can’t be restored overnight).
A rap on the knuckle headline
Another lead item in a few newspapers, when none of the news channels are reachable because of technical glitches, said that the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) has taken a suo-motu cognizance seeking an explanation from the state government to explain as why a whole lot of people in Puri and Khurda district have not been able to get the benefits from the relief measures as prescribed by the government. Interestingly, the NHRC has taken the cognizance basing on some media reports. Regardless of the veracity of such allegations, the state’s Chief Secretary, reportedly, is going to submit his report in response to the Commission’s notice very soon. No hogwash please!
Transport shrugged
A headline read that the public transport has been badly affected, including bus services, since last few days. That perhaps is an expected fall out as all the arteries of road communication were viciously impacted by fallen trees, other debris and lack of fuel like petrol and diesel and may be shortage of staff for a while. That is when the other private transports like Auto rikshaw and cabs on call wreck the mullah ! It is common a phenomenon not only in Odisha but everywhere so, let’s not push the local system on to the gallows for everything.
If a ‘bara’ or ‘alloo-chap’ can be priced at Rs.5 each and a spoonful of ‘ghoogni’(a mixed curry of potato and pea) or a candle (now a vanishing commodity) sales at Rs.5 against its normal price of Rs. 5 to 10 p/p then why not the transport .
Another lead takes us back to 1999
A good reading that makes when we come to know that help from several states or NGOs and even individuals have started pouring in in cash and kind. It is the same Khalsa Aid, which had played a real Samaritan role post the 1999 offering free food through a free ‘ lunger’ till normalcy was restored. This time also, Khalsa Aid is here in the city and transporting food to the battered holy city Puri which still is under a kind of resuscitation before it retrieves from the trauma.
A fantastic headline that was
In Odia it says why Puri missing from the focus’ and that is indeed a touching piece. Still gasping for breath and water the city of Puri that nestles with the ocean, seems at a pitiable end of a media blaze.
A heart touching episode
It goes without saying that the face of a newborn can even make the stone to melt. That is what came through reports in some media where in an exemplary departure from the ergophobia the government workers are tagged with, some people in the capital hospital managed to drag 22 newborns from the clutches of monstrous Fani . The ward they were in, had a roof in which several slabs of cement plaster with yawning gaps in-between were nearly gaping at the angels lying on the beds. It was a rewarding moment when the staff did succeed to take them away into safer enclosure, when if not the babies but the God must have sported a smile.
No damage to EVMs
The item was like a leaf out of the pages of a book read over and over again. Elections, votings and then the EVMs concealing the results that would blast the nation on May 23 with much more thunder than the cyclone. The police head in Odisha has few assuring words to console the people that they are all safe and kicking.
Back on the rails
It was a stand-apart header when one saw the trains chugging on the never-ending tracks of the railways almost a day after the cyclone hit Odisha’s three districts, mainly Puri, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. But the East Coast railways demonstrably took the lead in restoring its battered tracks and ensured that the commuters do not undergo a situation when pains of wait never end. A good job indeed.
Khalsa comes to rescue, sky is the limit !
They have been there for long, here in India and abroad too to play the yeoman role when no one is there. ‘Khalsa Aids’ should not hanker for an identity as their footprints of 1999 Super Cyclone days at Erasama in Odisha’s worst ravaged area in Jagatsingpur district, are still indelible. Sky is the limit when the members of this great social outfit opens the floodgates of its magnanimity. This time too they are there, readying food for people in Bhubaneswar and Puri. A great amalgamation of help, humanity and humility that this group is known for.
If headlines can speak the stories so does they. It is not a stuff to singe someone in shame for not doing so but this is how a mechanism to mitigate dangerous aftermaths in doing and undoing things.
