The Hindu Business Line : A wave to drown the tsunami

AMID the deep gloom of tsunami devastation, as one watched the almost surreal scenes of thousands of dead and lakhs rendered homeless or reduced to penury, there were a few silver linings too.

For any Indian, this disaster brought out one of the proudest moments of his/her life when the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said a polite but firm `No thank you' to the US President, Mr George W. Bush's offer of aid for the Indian victims.

As one has been telling friends from other parts of the world, you have to be an Indian to understand what this statement of confidence means for Indians, long used to international aid.

In so many ways it was appropriate that the man at the helm who said `no' to American aid was the architect of India's economic reforms. It certainly warmed the heart to see Indian corporates, including PSUs, announce contributions from Rs 1 crore to Rs 15 crore for the relief and rehabilitation of the tsunami victims.

Even more heartening is the spontaneous contributions pouring in from ordinary Indians, at home, to dollar rich NRIs of the US, the UK or the Gulf.

If our glittering malls, packed eateries, discos and other entertainment hubs, not to mention the shooting graph of the equity indices, are any indication, this country has enough resources to help itself; its well-off citizens can surely lend a helping hand to their less fortunate brethren.

Even more important than the money, food, clothes, etc, was the compassion people have shown in reaching out to the tsunami victims. NGO representatives, Rotarians, Lions, Round Tablers and other voluntary organisations had swung into action that fateful Sunday morning as fast as the official machinery.

We may not have well-organised systems in place that can swing into action with alacrity and efficiency after such disasters. Yet, our responses were not wanting. Of course, our governments — politicians and bureaucrats included — will have to take stock and also do some soul searching on why relief did not reach the victims in time. But there will be time and placefor that .

But nothing can make us more proud than the compassion with which ordinary Indians have responded. And the dignity with which the victims have behaved.

For instance, the proud fishermen who told the Prime Minister that it is not food or clothes they need, but help to get their fishing boats and nets ready so that they can go back to work at the earliest. The people for whom the sea was everything in that it gave them the only means of livelihood are today understandably petrified of those very waters. But most of them also know that sooner than later they will have to return to it to carry on with their lives.

It must have been with moist eyes — but also with a recognition and celebration of the resilience that we as a people possess in plenty — that millions of Indians must have taken in on Tuesday morning the front-page newspaper photographs of the odd fishermen gathering courage to venture out with their mended fishing boats to the very sea that demolished their lives hardly a week ago.

The fisherfolks' children studying in schools along the coast are slowly returning to their classes, though their tender minds are still coming to grips with what hit them. Thousands have lost what neither the government's relief package nor fellow citizens' generosity or compassion can replace — their parents. But, then, children have the resilience and the capacity to bounce back that is far superior to that of adults.

Many a parent interviewed by Business Line's reporters have said that they are not worried so much about their food or shelter as by the dark thoughts of not being able to afford any more a decent education for their children.

Lies buried somewhere in this dream for their children's future is the story of how India is changing and what it hopes to do for not only its blue-eyed IT children, but all its young, as it marches towards the goal of becoming an economic powerhouse.

And while we do that and find the resources to install — as we certainly will — tsunami warning systems, such as the one that alerted 26 countries in the Pacific region about the Sunday's giant waves, the rest of the world now, and history eventually, will judge the heartlessness of human beings who could give out an alert 15 minutes after the earthquake and well before the onslaught of the tsunamis, that read thus: "No destructive tsunami threat exists for the Pacific basin based on historical and tsunami data... There is the possibility of a tsunami near the epicentre."

So what if those nations "near the epicentre" were not members of this warning system? Have subscription fees become more important than human lives?

This is exactly why when Mr Bush appears in White House, flanked by two former presidents — his father, Mr George Bush Sr., and Mr Bill Clinton — and says how the tsunami-devastated regions can bank on the "generosity of the American people", the words ring hollow and can raise anger and resentment in other parts of the world.

How do we forget that the initial $15 million Mr Bush pledged (which was quickly raised to $35 million and then $350 million after a UN official chided the American leadership for its stinginess) was much less than the money the US spends everyday on its so-called mission to return democracy and freedom to Iraq?

But let us not worry too much about what the rest of the world can do for us. This tragedy has helped us, as very few others have done, to understand ourselves a little better.

The people's compassion, their generosity, the resilience and, above all, their intrinsic capacity to forget artificial and man-made barriers such as religion, caste, creed or community. And there have been any number of tales of unimaginable heroism.

Images that will continue to warm our hearts long after the tsunamis' destruction is forgotten will be of Muslims and Hindus working side by side, to cook and serve food to the victims; of churches distributing relief material without bothering about the faith of the recipients; of the mosque in a coastal village of Tamil Nadu that opened its doors to the fishermen, most of whom were either Hindu or Christian; of the backward caste people in Nagapattinam, who retrieved decaying bodies and performed the last rites of people who might have shunned them in life; of the man in Chennai's Santhome who opened the backdoor of his house on the sea to enable some 300 people escape the wrath of the killer waves.

It would be fatalistic to say that everything happens for the good. But tragedies like this do play a role in bonding human beings; a great leveller, the fury of nature is no respecter of caste religion, language or culture. If such disasters can raise all one billion of us as one man, should not happier times bring us closer still? But that is another story.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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