Visions of destruction crowding the social networking sites.... Nepal's famed Durbar Square as well as the Dharahara Tower, built in 1832, all World Heritage Sites, a pile of rubble... video clippings of buildings collapsing like a pack of cards, of laments, of shrill cries, of dead bodies in a heap, of hospitals outdoing its capacity.
Experts on seismology say that theoritically this was long overdue. The India plate is moving under the Eurasian plate at an alarming rate.
Front page coverage of total strangers frantically removing rubble to pull out the outstretched hand of a child.....No bystanders watching....but, each one joining hands to save and to share, whatever little they have....Women comforting and holding children, they have never known....Men carrying the aged and the injured on their backs...nations standing in solidarity, for Nepal...
With the breaking down of the normal way of life, factors that builds walls between man and man has broken down too...Nationality, race, colour, religion....Nothing has the power to create a rift now. How different is this picture from the everyday picture of humanity that we come across? Where are the images of savagery, brutality, barbarism, ruthlessness? How can we, the same despicable human race, so much used to being merciless, change ourselves in a jiffy? Do we only unite, stand in solidarity and consider ourselves part of one humanity, only when we feel threatened?
Is this what nature is trying to make us realise with its unrelenting severity? Maybe, nature had to tug a little at its strings of power, in order to pull at the heart-strings of humanity. Maybe, it had to be cruel so that it could teach us to be kind, again.
Photo Courtesy: Net
