The storm provides...*

An opportunity to introspect

When I was in college, I was secretly happy when all the IT and automobile industries made a beeline to Chennai. People come to Chennai. People make money. People want houses. And that river bed that has been dry for all these years looks tempting. And building luxury villas on the dried up lake bed doesn't seem to be that bad of an idea after all. After all, we're told that greed is good. An affordable house with all the latest amenities and an Italian or Spanish inspired name that is a ten-minute drive from all points in the city? Well, something had to give. It was a comforting thought that all these years of rampant, reckless "development" was a victim-less crime. Until now. While it is easy to point accusing fingers at the political system and bureaucracy, one must acknowledge that they were active facilitators. We the consumers must share our portion of the blame. The show of humanity was indeed heartwarming but we brought it upon ourselves. If we are willing to listen, there are lessons for everyone around. 

An opportunity for political change

Tamilnadu has always had a two-party system in place. It is not a bad thing per se. But the two parties happen to be DMK and ADMK: the mother of all double whammies. Together with the others in the political cirucs, they have taken turns in raping the state and Chennai has particularly borne the brunt. A political dispensation without these two parties has always been a pipe dream in the state. But with a population simmering in (sufficiently) righteous rage, a different regime seems like an idea whose time has come. Now, in my opinion as someone with only an emotional connect to the city, any party with the dreaded D-word is not worthy of a chance. And, in keeping with the flavor of the season, I will seek political asylum in Syria should the communists come to power in TN. Anyone game for a pot pourri coalition with the BJP in the driver's seat?

A chance to rethink emergency preparedness

We have seen it many times now. The Mumbai floods. The carnage on 26/11. Then the Kashmir floods. And now the Chennai deluge. The government machinery, once out of the initial paralysis, sputters to life and works in fits and starts relying on outdated, inadequate mechanisms. Right from clearing the glass shards at an accident site to taking on international terrorists, the government always turns up with a sword to a gunfight. There were 18 different phone numbers being published for the various departments for relief when hardly any phones were working. Call this the rant of the NRI but you don't really need much more than common sense in most cases to make a difference. I’m not smart enough to offer solutions here but I’m sure there are many there available with expertise and experience. If only someone will map the right people on to the right jobs, based on merit only.

Another chance to take potshots at the media

Talking about common sense, one cannot fail to mention the role of the media in a disaster of this scale. While the national media was busy discussing intolerance and Amir Khan's possible departure from India, the local media - a euphemism for the many parties' mouthpieces - was busy pushing their respective agendas over providing an accurate picture of the ground reality. Much of the time, the narrative won over actual news that was happening. If you shove a microphone into the face of someone standing in chest deep water and ask him about government relief work, I daresay the response will be fairly obvious. Similarly, flood montages with a particularly sorrowful Western classical violin composition for the background? Depending on which outlet you were tuned into, it was either a party out there or the apocalypse was here with very little content that really mattered. I’m willing to overlook all this (I’m just kidding) if the reporters at least spoke coherent, good Tamil. Often times the flood victims were more articulate and sounded reasonable. Sigh.

Opportunity for mirth

Kamal Hassan's first statement querying the whereabouts of our taxes, even if ill-timed, was valid. A pointed question that put the government of the day in a tighter situation than it already found itself in. The response was along predictable lines: quick, crass and unrefined. Just when you thought that it was time to move on came the volte face from Kamal distancing himself from his previous, alleged statement. As far as TN is concerned, politics and movies continue to be joined at the hip but sharing only half a spine between them. Leave it to our politicians and actors to up the humor quotient in the face of disaster.

 *The title is a line I stole from the Disney movie The Good Dinosaur.