Spread the vibe - all the good needs to be talked about

As an optimist, I always find a glass half full than half empty. I enjoy reading positive, motivating and inspiring articles and am not skeptical about it.  2015 like any other year was a mixed bag and I encountered many people who inspired me and I had many positive takeaways from the many stories I read. Some inspiring stories were  from the floods that hit the Coastal cities of Chennai, Cuddalore, Pondicherry and nearby towns.

All of us know how India’s fifth largest city and  one of the major contributor to India’s economy  was battered with one of the heaviest rainfall in over a century.  It  drove thousands of people from their homes cutting across religion, social status and economical status. The whole city came to a standstill when its major auto companies, IT hubs, banks, and other major institutions, shops were shut down. The city  was cut off from the rest of the country when the airport, rail and road routes were paralysed, needless to say about local transport and essential supplies being out of reach.

Disasters of such massive scale, such as this cannot be immediately handled by the Government alone, or one can’t rely just on Army, Navy or Air force to  do the rescue jobs and wait for help when emergency strikes. It is near impossible to reach every nook and corner of the city on time. Such disasters test the human spirit and apart from the physical suffering can leave you traumatized to take any action.

It is during  challenging situation as such, It was notable that the people of these flood ravaged places used their presence of mind and  rose to help one another cutting across barrierr like religion, status  etc. So many touching stories popped out from this disaster, that helped reaffirm faith in humanity.

 Many Government and public places like Temples, mosques, wedding, cinema halls ,educational institutions were thrown open for shelter. People in safer places  walked out of their homes to the streets and reached out to people who were short of essential supplies, Many  opened their homes to strangers, while some helped by supplying freshly cooked food and water to many.  Even The economically weaker sections like the fishermen drove the boats in the city to rescue stranded people, vegetable vendors used the pushcarts to rescue and then there was the security guard who offered his one month salary for relief materials, the maid who added an extra 100 to her salary to help the needy. Age and religion  were not a barrier either, there was this old couple who refused to join their children in faraway Mumbai and decided to stay back and help their city, A retired 70 year old employee who made a make shift boat with a plank and helped rescue people,  A hungry little  girl who was mature enough to share the biscuit with her little neighbor foregoing her own share, Uneducated people who made use of jugaad by turning plastic barrels as temporary boats to ferry people,  the Muslim man who wrote from Dubai to tell his pregnant wife in Chennai was rescued by their Hindu neighbor. The Hindu couple who gave their child a Muslim name after the man who helped reach them to the maternity hospital on time…and the list of  "feel good" humane stories  goes on……all  enough to pen a voluminous book.

Even the celebrities who are treated as demi gods and unapproachable normally proved that they were mere mortals. Rang de Basanti Star Siddharth and Radio jockey Balaji  got down on their knees to reach out to people. What started off on twitter at a micro level by them took off like a Mexican wave and had a massive effect when young volunteers pitched in.  Touch button generation youth who are generally chided for using the gadgets flipped around and used the same technology to help humanity. There were many stars from cine, sports and business world who made a huge positive difference by donating in cash and kind.

These are just the few of the many people who helped the rain battered towns during the floods. There were many  more heartening and touching stories  where the people of these places have set an example to show how humanity is a religion.  The neighbouring state which fought for water, united over water by sending relief supplies ,volunteers and aid. Other states too pitched in with their support. In general, it was not the spirit of Chennai or Cuddalore, but it was about  the spirit of humanity ….one human helping another. 

The floods over, the damage is done and the relief efforts have given way to rehabilitation efforts. The city is slowly limping back to normalcy despite its damages. The  damages can be taken care of like the Japanese philosophy  or art called “Kintsukuroi” where a damaged piece of art like a broken ceramic ware is repaired and sealed with gold  lacquer wherever the cracks show and the damaged piece becomes a piece of art worth cherishing and more beautiful than the original.

Pic courtesy: Google

Similarly, after showing the world Humanity is religion and intolerance is only on news channels. Chennai and nearby towns are  all set to aggrandize itself like the art of Kintsukuroi, thanks to its highly spirited  people whose magnanimity has made many "feel good".

Like a domino effect this deluge showed that a small act of kindness can trigger a series of good hearted acts. That’s all is needed to survive – a genuine initiative - a simple act of goodness and we know the world is made of beautiful people. 

#SpreadTheVibe, because all the good in the world needs to be talked about.