All is not well...Sid(we) really needs to wake up!!
The Carlton tower episode has once again brought to the front of our callous and non-committal attitude. Safety norms were flouted big time this time and every time. How many more lives? how many more tragedies, how many more attacks? how many more accidents will it take for us to really wake up?
What happened yesterday at Carlton will certainly not shake us up, as i say this in a most pessimistic tone i know this for sure that, life will resume to normalcy very soon, papers and channels will also forget about carrying anything or any story pertaining this mishap or disaster and some overtly optimistic people will rave about the spirit of the city that got back to normal so soon. While i wonder if we should really rave about the spirits of our cities as dead or the great lively city that never sleeps or whatever.
There will be thousands of theories on what went wrong, what could have been done, fire personnels didnt even have the basic equipment and they were literally jumping into fire without specific gears to handle the fire. There will be politicians visiting the deceased, with their false sympathies, giving them compensations and jhooti dilasa. There will be talks about some brave souls who didnt care for their own lives and jumped into the ill-fated building to save the choking and jumping people.
It is almost so sad and disheartening to see that nothing serious is ever done in our country, no steps are taken, to see to it that there are rules, there are norms, there are regulations and there is enforcement. I see, you see, we all see, various people voicing their concerns over blogs, letters to the editors, and media and wherever possible. After sometime all this dies down and we are left with a few grieving families who sooner or later dry up their tears, accept the happening as fate and say, "Uska utna hi likha tha" "Ashte bardiradu" and move on.
I ask, Really, really kya uska utna hi likha tha?, what nonsense, is all i can say!!
What really can be done and should be done now:
1) Make very strict laws and enforcements on building and constructions.
2) Make fire drills mandatory for every organisation. (each individual should know what to do, how to use equipment lying to save themselves)
3) I heard a fire personnel say, People should have crawled, this avoids choking, the wind was blowing towards east/west/north or some direction and that people should have gone to the opposite side and broken windows, - Hello, did you train people in this, did you spread awareness about all this? They should have done this and that and what not, it DOES NOT MATTER NOW, they are dead now. SOme are in ICU some are battling for life and death, a few lucky ones are out to tell first hand experiences. But bottom line is after it happens, they should have done this or that!!????
4) The most important thing, the blue collared laborer also needs to be trained. i have observed over the years that, this work force really needs to be trained in lot of areas other than what they do. We need them to clean and keep our offices sparkling, we need them to get Chai, to maintain the diesel for our gen sets, tons of diesel was stored on the roof of the carlton towers, what were the diesel doing there, it could have blown up the whole place in a more devastating manner, we were lucky again..
We need them, but at what cost? They cannot be there doing just the mundane work without knowing ABC's of safety, or a sound working knowledge of which doors to lock and the common knowlegde which is required in the running of a building. How can emergency exits be locked, bolted and latched?? Who is accountable for this, dont managements have a system in place to check all this?
Many a times, we hear people telling us, "Its ok, nothing will happen, you use this bindaas". How can you be so sure, Like the Kerla boat tragedy where again, many tourists sank along with our Mini-Titanic. Again i am sure, that "nothing will happen" attitude that we show comes into limelight.
How the hell do you know nothing will happen, what if it does, so you bloody well, take all the precautions needed. You better have ten life gaurds, you better have emergency boats, i am sure the owners were thinking, KUCH NAHI HOGA YAAR..which cost these holidayers their lives.
Everybody is screaming out there, in India, lives are cheap, sasta, abroad every life is precious and they will guard it, come what may. Accidents, mishaps happen, but again and again and again.. Uphar tragedy happened 13 years back and the justice still awaits, will it take the burning down of a major political establishment for us to wake up and take steps required?
The time is NOW, take action NOW, everyone is talking about this NOW, but our government seems to be asleep. A recent photo of one of our state's MLA dancing in full "Beedi jalyilee style" along with bar girls to entertain other MLA's made me think, what am i doing, what are we doing, what is Indias educated brigade doing? Apart from actively blogging and commenting on each others blogs with fiery statements? my heart bleeds to see such things, i mean, these are the bloody goons in power, country makers, Visionaries(god knows if he has any other visions than a semi clad or nude woman in his dreams) in power.
Coming back to the tragedy in Namma Bengaluru, wake up sid, wake up every one. We can do a lot in changing our attitudes, taking things seriously first, its really not ok, and all is not well, if we keep going like this, if we dont do anything about our "Sab chalta hai attitude".
