Friends of Samanvaya,
Thank you for the several friends who have mailed, texted,
called or tried to call during the last couple of weeks to express your
concern. Thank you for several friends in Chennai who had asked us to camp with
them rather generously.
This mail is to let you know that my family and myself are
safe and fine. We had to first shift partly to our office and later completely
away from our house as the floods inundated the house. Below is an account of
the week that was, through the week at different times, I could somehow record
a few observations and thoughts that was shared online in the social medium the
connectivity for which worked in random manner, I have interspersed the same in
between the narrative below to give an idea of what was going on.
While floods and rains were not new to Chennai, the
magnitude of this flood was ‘scary’ (a word I heard several times about this
city in the last week) – it rained close to 50 cms in a day, that was last Tuesday,
the 1st of December - something that hasn’t happened in 100
years we are told. I am firmly of the belief that this is part of the
climate change that is happening and the unpredictability of weather will
continue in the coming days unless the healing forces take over the world and
even if they do, it will be quite some time before which the extremities become
moderate. Just like the current times see the political ascend of the extreme
in several parts of the world, the times also seem to trigger the extreme in
nature, one is seeing the end of moderate times.
Dec 1st,
10.15 p.m.: Folks, just to inform we are safe and fine. Flooding is more than
last week, above 3 feet, despite not much rain in the last 2 hours, water level
raising inside the house. We are still upstairs, most neighbours have found
secure first floor spaces with others in the vicinity... Listening to ek
phankaar in vividh bhaarathi over transistor radio in candle light..
What was more difficult for many in Chennai to accept was
the inaccessibility and incommunicado to which people were reduced to. For
about 3 days last week and perhaps 5 in some areas, people were rendered both
inaccessible and incommunicado, with electricity first and telephone
connections later failing one after another in the middle of torrential rains,
increasing flooding of houses and complete blocking of all approach roads. “we
were in the middle of a road and there was no where to go, almost all paths led
us to more flooding and we couldn’t walk back towards the house we deserted as
that path too was fast increasing with floods”, said one good friend who along
with her husband and two children decided to leave our neighbourhood in the
middle of the worst Tuesday in Chennai, “here I was standing in the middle of
nowhere with my children and I didn’t know what to do”, she said. Another
colleague at SLI spent close to 14 hours in his journey on the same Tuesday in
a bus – he had decided to leave for Auroville and boarded the bus in our
central bus stand at Koyembedu in the morning – journey that normally would
have taken him 3 hours. He didn’t make it to Auroville and had to return to
Chennai late that night despite spending those hours knowing not where he would
reach or by when, “it was the most scary and unforgettable experience in my
life”, he later messaged when he made it home in the middle of the night.
People from far off places couldn’t reach their near ones as
the mobile phone towers failed for almost all the service providers. There was
no way in which anyone could know what was happening when the big floods came
on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. There had been no electricity since Sunday
in many parts and without television or internet, most people had no way of
knowing what was happening in the outside world or even what was the weather
forecast predicted. I maintain an old transistor radio with spare batteries that
provided me with regular news and weather update which I could share with the
neighbours. On Wednesday, the radio station was also unable to function as its
phone lines were dead and the 4 RJs slept in the studio as they couldn’t go
home and gave their personal numbers to receive calls and text message about
people missing and people enquiring, trying to desperately connect people while
there were very few ‘official’ announcements.
The government obviously was not prepared for the magnitude
of flooding or for that matter what needed to be done in its aftermath. It took
awhile for them to move (almost on Wednesday) and then they seemed to be
wanting to do everything for everyone. Well, how it managed (or didn’t) will be
debated for quite some time to come, perhaps all the way to the state elections
in May next year.
By Thursday the 3rd morning, we heard that
the Army has been called in. It is on that day we decided to shift home
using boat in streets where we normally walk and cycle! I called my Mother from
on top of the water tank in the terrace of our house and could manage 2
sentences that morning. When we reached the main road, we found that several
roads were blocked off as there was severe flooding, buses were off the roads,
of the 4 railway networks that connected the city, 2 that ran on elevated rails
were functioning and the longer ones that ran on the surface have been
suspended due to flooding. Autorickshaw drivers, the few that were functional,
demanded 1000 rupees for commuting distances in which they would normally
charge 100, there were very few policemen in sight anywhere. Commuting across
the city that morning from southern chennai where I live to northern suburbs
where my parents live was embedded with images of this city that will stay with
us for a very long time. This city was truly flooded, from the bridge on top of
the Adayar river at kotturpuram, we saw only a wild flowing river in high tide
where there used to be settlements on the banks earlier, in the northern
boundary of vyasarpadi, we saw people swimming out of their houses that was
inundated till the first floor and walk into trains with just the dress in
their person. A group of IT professionals, all young girls from Andhra Pradesh
and Bangaluru were trying to get back to their native place, their ‘working
women’s hostel’ had been shut down suddenly for want of electricity and
supplies and they were asked to leave, many had not ventured out in this city
beyond their office, hostel and nearby areas, they didn’t know how to get out
of the city or which train will take them closer to the border, worse, many of
them didn’t have cash as the ATMs had all been affected. They had pooled their
cash reserve and moved in whichever direction anyone would tell them. I saw
another set of IT professional guys sharing one packet of biscuit between them.
If the men and women were in shock and walking in the first day light in a 4
days looking dazed, the plight of animals was far worse, there were cows
huddled in the middle of water looking completely lost, the few street dogs on
the way we saw were all looking shocked as well. Later we were to find out that
the small entrepreneur who supplied milk in our neighbourhood lost 4 of his
milch animals to the floods.
Some of the scenes when we trekked today were heart wrenching.It is easy to blame or be emotional and in rage at this moment, but, that can wait. No one can be ready for this fury, climate change just got closer to us and its time to comprehend it fully before one can respond. But, now is time to reach out, make people safe and ensure no life is lost.
This morning I helped a stranger hoist a boat over flooded park gate that was locked so that she could go home and fetch her family, another stranger helped me hoist the next boat so that I can fetch our family out of the house safely... Strangers, not friends on FB or WhatsApp groups, discovering, helping each other, caring and sharing... Humanity manifests in its beauty amidst testing times such as these. Just now I am all in admiration and appreciation for all the amazing efforts are strangers supporting each other as we gather some strength and recover from various ailments. Nature has its ways of showing us what we are capable of. Wish we listen, observe, practice and not always wait its reminder!
Friday was the day we got to finally to have some network in
the phone consistently enough for us to start to communicate to at least a few
people through text, voice calls took another day. Some isolated parts of the
city had power restored completely on that day as well and finally there was
more sense of what had happened across the city. By then slowly but steadily
help had started to trickle in, people from other cities were waking up to the
magnitude of the Chennai floods and there were efforts to support the city with
provisions, food and immediate needs. I also realized that day that how
irresponsible our idea of using our communication medium was. The following
post were from that day.
Also all those blessed with images and WhatsApp stop STOP crowding meagre power with your feel good photos or silly disaster selfies or even more pathetic videos from moving vehicles, it is highly irresponsible and silly to crowd phone lines in Chennai just now unless you can practically offer some help.
Please share this widely friends. Thank you
Even more annoying was the government’s efforts (as seen on
television) and that of some media houses to project that ‘we are returning to
normalcy’! I had seen otherwise that morning and couldn’t believe that we can
brush aside most of the city still coming to terms with the magnitude of the
disaster and declare that ‘things are normal’.
Dec 4th,
5.01 p.m.: Please make no mistakes, ordinary life may not return for 10 days,
maybe more, and city will take 5 years to regain any sense from this... Media
trying to over emphasis positive cannot brush aside the reality of this scene.
I saw a report that said, "ordinary life returns", not a semblance
anywhere in sight!
It was on that evening that I also checked the social media
and got to know that several friends were involved in relief efforts in the
city. This was heartening to know. We have always been involved with the
disaster relief coordination, starting from Gujarat Earthquake to the latest
Uttarakhand earthquake year before last, supporting several agencies in the
field. This time due to personal reasons we couldn’t, but, I realized that
there were always people who were getting into this work for the first time and
hence quickly had recorded my general guidelines online. I was happy to find
that this has been shared across several networks and many have written back
stating that this was very useful for them in their relief work approach.
General rules in post disaster situation:
1. Validate information before blindly forwarding or sharing, the more desperate something sounds, the more important to validate. Simple check date /time stamp in original message
2. Don't spread obvious rumours - epidemic breakout, trapped millions, more flooding, disaster scandal theories,...
3. Identify and work with localised efforts and solutions offline and if you can be online, best to offer help to some group or network. Volunteering online time will become crucial in the coming days
4. Please direct any donations or contributions to reliable and credible agencies. There are many in TN. Don't donate just because you like a sob story. Also please discourage disaster tourism, YES it exists
5. Don't invest in materials that are required yesterday. Post disaster situation changes by the hour when situation improves. Last thing we need is mountains of biscuits and hills of milk powder. Better to stay in touch with one area field level workers and support their needs alone in a limited manner or even better support relief camps.
6. Medicine will be an important need in coming days, but it is not universal. Please don't get prescriptive and only gather and donate hygiene and purification related health materials
7. Food donation is easy, but, of it generates extra garbage due to packaging or distribution, then it creates additional problems. Have a garbage disposal plan or provide garbage bags along with food distribution
8. Hygiene will be a major issue this week, please ensure if you are involved in any relief work that you and your co-workers are protected
9. Government officials involved in relief work are all humans too, often with families themselves affected, they are really stretched just now. Treat them with compassion and don't make them target for your accumulated anger or sense of helplessness. Remember, we didn't care about people building in water bodies all these days. Sudden bouts of self righteousness on our part can't be reason to find the next available government official to vanquish and achieve instant nirvana
10. Become responsible in communication and take care to practice minimum courtesies, most important, please help everyone and anyone, there are no strangers during disaster
But of course these guidelines were for the relief workers
and the other observations and thoughts remained. Couldn’t digest the fact that
some of the city managers had forgotten to open the flood gates into the sea in
time which could have avoided at least some level of the flooding. I could also
see the rage and anger among several friends vented online on the apathy they
felt in the management of the flood situation. More important I remembered
again and again Joss words after the last floods, “we are all living on a water
shed “ and the complete disregard to water this city has shown in the past
decade of the most unplanned growth in all directions.
Dec 5th,
1.10 a.m.: One persistent thought as I watched people leave with a hand baggage
deserting their homes yesterday across the city- "planning and maintenance
of public infrastructure has to become a accountable and legally prosecutable
activity". If city planners and those who manage it were to be made to pay
for the roads that caved in at the first impact of rain by every motorist who
couldn't reach her bike to safety, the storm water drain that didn't work when
most needed and flooded houses by those who were
affected, the sluice gates that didn't open in time resulting in massive
flooding along the banks of the river by the inhabitants of these areas, the
reduced water sink area of the city that caused the flooding in the first place
by all those who were flooded, ... It cannot be life as usual after these
floods, if things have to change, they change because people need to think
beyond the immediate and obvious to the causes and demand action, I hope that
when we are faced with elections in 5 months, we will remember these floods and
demand accountability!
I realized that the impending
state elections was a persistent thought not just in my mind, but, that of
almost all political parties and the bureaucrats in the State and it showed.
Worse was the ways in which it was being manifest and hindering the relief
efforts.
I hope none is denied help because an opposition party slogan is seen in their wall. We have a very good set of bureaucrats, but if decisions are centralised and hence delayed, this disaster will be far worse.
"We see through their game clearly now", said a women from northern Chennai slum when i asked her about who has been giving them food, " it is these north Indians (marvadi boys, as she called them) who came to our rescue, they fed our entire colony for 3 days, visiting each house, not a councillor, an MLA turned up during this time of grief and helplessness ". " I used to admire this CM and government", added an auto driver, "but, I saw how their party tried to corner all relief material, now I have no illusions about them". Saw an entire Muslim colony men near her place directing traffic in severe rain, ensuring vehicular safety, working with minimal cops.
No one was prepared for this magnitude of disaster, but, a governance culture where show of loyalty overrules common sense and privileges are conferred based on perceived closeness to central power, disaster relief too will only be dictated by this culture. I hope people stop being cadres of political parties for a few weeks.
It was difficult for many people
to reconcile their life to the new reality even as they were coping with the
immediate issues. Several conversations across the city that day made me
realize that there were far too many questions being posed in peoples’ minds.
But, I also noticed that the city was almost crippled with inactivity, the only
activity was relief and everyone else was waiting almost for something in the
city to wake up.
As the immediate relief efforts seem to come to an organised phase, it is important to start to think in these lines. We are talking of livelihood support to perhaps a million people here. This will be a huge challenge and it cannot be business as usual. It is important to start to imagine urban (if at all) sustainable livelihood opportunities that can ensure that this city heals long term.
Rebuilding the city in itself can be an adequate employment activity. The tsunami altered the east coast road for the worse, when the fishing villages made way for the several resorts and spas. Perhaps this floods can be better utilised for a better Chennai.
On Dec 7th, I
returned to my house to inspect the damage and start the cleaning process. It was
good to come back and download mails of a week into the computer, it was good
to sit in my old workstation and feel as though life is normal knowing that
things have changed irreversibly all around, not in the way things are
organized, but in the way they are perceived.
Dec 7th,
10.30 a.m.: Remembering U.R.Ananthamurthy's words (with reference to the crazy
growth of IT sector in Bangalore), "Narayamurthy (the famous founder of
Infosys) suffocates my idea of Bangalore", yes the new southern urban
development of over a decade has made many millionaires whose millions didn't
help the city as the flood plains in which they built their dreams could
have... Now that there is a pause, do we rethink or do we continue day dreaming
millions?
I am convinced that the way to
go for us would be to start thinking of what parts of the city needs to be
sustained and how. In the next days I am planning to work on the ‘sustainable
urban livelihoods’ programmes for the Sustainable Livelihood Institute, at
least we can make a beginning...
I will share more in the coming
days …thank you for reading this far.
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