water water everywhere

I am writing this sitting in the capital of a desert state. In one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit Asia, the death toll is ticking over like a Delhi electricity meter. Tragedy loses meaning after a while. I cannot begin to comprehend the numbers being flashed on TV and on the web: 12,000 dead in Sri Lanka, 3,500 dead in Tamil Nadu. Waking up to a front page dominated by a picture of devastation on a Chennai beach, I was left wondering about the existence of sanity and reason. Nature - it is clear - doesn’t think too much of either. There is a viciousness, an untamed savagery that mocks us and our puny attempts to rise above the natural order. The transience of human society has been washed away by the tidal waves that have struck the Asian coastline. This is not a calamity limited to a region or a country. An entire continent is reeling in shock. As the flood waters recede over the next few days, or weeks, other problems will arise. The stench of death will be replaced by a growing sense that chaos and disorder hide behind every pile of reeking refuse. Disease shall consume all that comes in its path. Hapless governments are flying in aid and seeing it disappear into a blackhole of a natural disaster. The immense magnitude of destruction has left me so numb that the drudgery of normality is my sole refuge.

Originally published on ] t h i n k [ (tootb.blogspot.com); recovered from the Wayback Machine.