spotlight: Shankar, 2nd Year MBA, placed in Ma Foi Consultancy.
Life to me is an experimental ground where we are given innumerable chances to explore our being and explode within. Amrita truly provides an opportunity for this. My friends, teachers, Nature, academic curriculum and wonderful experiences here have definitely molded me into being a better individual. My motto is to “live life with Character, Commitment, Courage & Passion”.
The following is a first hand account of my experience at the relief operations in Nagapattinam
Nagapattinam Diaries
As I stood on the rubbles of a demolished house, I smelt the salt of the calm sea, heard a distant wail of a lady who apparently had lost her dear ones and saw the vast expanse of the sea merging with the sky at the horizon. My mind was unable to comprehend the fact that this same sea, that was lashing the shore like white pearls, had on the morning of 26th December, risen up like a giant black beast from sleep and caused one of the most horrifying natural disaster ever in the history of mankind. Some of the houses had turned to just a heap of debris. Some just had the floor left, lots of men with tonsured heads were sitting with lost hopes, as if contemplating the meaning of the tragedy that had befallen their lives. This was the heartrending sight of a village in Nagur, Nagapattinam, which was one of the worst affected places in India by the Tsunami or the killer wave.
We, a group of 14 students, accompanied by the Dean & four professors were in Nagappatinam on 13th of January, as part of the relief team from the business school. As managers with social responsibility, we deemed it our duty to be present there and do whatever little we could to improve the situation in this small coastal town. Though now I can make the above statement with a sense of pride that lesser mortals like me carry, initially I was in double minds about going there. The very idea of relief work brought to my mind pictures of people with their mouths covered, of epidemics and endless toil. But that little spark of desire to make my living here a little more worthwhile, by being of help to those in need, motivated me to go for my first ever relief operation. During my two years of management education at Amrita, these are some of the days that will never get erased from my book of memory. It was also during this period that I learnt some of life’s greatest lessons as well.
During our stay there, we did everything from chopping vegetables to construction work. Some of us were doing most of these for the first time in our lives. But yet everyone managed it in a meticulous fashion and more than anything, with inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm. Of all that we did during our stay there, visiting the villages was the most difficult part. It was hard for many of us to contain ourselves listening to the stories of how husbands lost their wives, kids lost their parents and how families lost their lives’ earnings and fortune. Before visiting the villages, we were given clear instructions about how to deal with the villagers. All they wanted was somebody who would listen to their woes and lend a shoulder to ease out their burden. We went in groups and visited many houses in these villages. As we entered the courtyards, we could sense the pall of gloom that was hovering in these families. The moment they saw us, they started describing the nightmarish experiences of how the wave rose up to the height of a palm tree and lashed into the houses and surroundings tossing human bodies like dolls in the water. Young mothers broke into sobs recounting how they had to make choices to let go one of their children to the hands of death when they realized they couldn’t save both. In total despair and helplessness, many of them had watched their loved ones drowning. They also watched their lifelong earnings get washed away in a matter of seconds. As I heard these stories my mind echoed words I had heard but long forgotten - “nothing is permanent in this world”, “do not live in attachment with this world”, “live in the present”, “future is unpredictable”….. Instances like these really throw meaning into what mahatmas have been preaching since ages.
The water that filled these villages was black in colour and had all the mud and dirt in it. It was as if the sea had purged out the garbage from her bowels, which over the years, man had dumped into her conveniently with absolute indifference. We listened to all they had to say, with undivided attention and all we could offer them were words of consolation and our prayers. We also explained how the Math was doing its best to rehabilitate them and help them restart their lives. This came as a sense of hope and relief to them.
We visited a village in Karaikudi, Pondicherry.. The situation there was more depressing than anywhere else. There was massive destruction and loss of life was immense. There were quite a few who had not recovered after the tragedy. Most of the huts in those villages had been washed away. The grief of a young man who lost his wife in the tragedy moved us all. He had written the name of his wife on the mud and was unwilling to move from there for days together. There were others who had lost their houses, relatives and other belongings. We distributed rice, grocery and toiletries to all the families in that village and visited most of their houses.
In spite of such a huge loss, one thing that amazed all of us was the fact that majority of the villagers had come to terms with the tragedy. Though they were pouring out their worries to us, they had recovered much faster than we had expected them to. One of the villagers who was guiding us while we visited the houses, even took all of us to his house and treated us with such hospitality, that for a while we all forgot the tragedy that had struck the village.
As Swami Abhayamrita Chaithanya rightly pointed out, if this kind of a tragedy had struck an urban area, populated by the so-called educated and civilized people, the psychological trauma faced by them would have been much more than that of the simple villagers living in the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu.
Apart from counseling, we were involved in distributing food and milk to the villagers staying in the relief camps. In the evenings when we went to distribute milk, the little kids came running with tumblers and mugs and crowded around us jostling and pushing each other. Seeing the little ones relentless efforts in reaching their tongues to lick the last drop of milk sticking to their glasses really pricked my mind. I felt guilty for all the cribbing I used to do when little comforts in life were missing.
I realized, how thankful we had to be for all that we had in our lives.
The Amritanandamayi Math’s volunteers were doing an exemplary job of feeding around 4000 people three meals a day for almost a month. On the day of Pongal, the numbers went up to 10000. The management of the whole distribution system of food for these many people in different camps was done with such meticulousness, that it would have made any professional logistician stand in awe. Though a huge quantity of food was being prepared every day, there was no compromise on taste and quality. We also ate the same food that was being distributed in the relief camps.
It was encouraging to see the volunteers from the Math and other Amrita institutions working tirelessly round the clock to help rehabilitate the affected people of Nagapattinam. Temporary shelters were being built by the Math for the families who had lost their homes. All of us were involved in filling the floor of the houses with sand. Though the work involved physical exertion, none of us gave up until we finished the houses allotted to us. Our Dean, Mr. Sushil Kumar and the faculty were in the forefront of all the relief work and they truly led by example. This again, was a great source of motivation for all of us.
In the nights, after a day’s labour, when we used to drop on our beds all exhausted, our minds were flooded with a feeling of immense satisfaction and joy for having been able to help our fellow beings in the hour of need. Even as I closed my eyes, the faces of little kids in various relief camps kept haunting me. There was one face that kept coming back into my mind again & again, it was that of little Armada. A face that was once full of cheer and joy of a kid of her age was today filled with fear and a sense of grief. We spend a long time playing with her and were happy to see her forgotten smile get restored back on the innocent face. The trauma and shock that these kids had to face at this tender age was insurmountable for their little innocent hearts.
Today, even as man continues to exploit nature and live in disharmony with her, it is time that he realized that the consequence of his Karma not only affects him, but also the present and coming generations of young ones.
The four days that we spend there was truly remarkable and I was happy about the choice I made.
When we started off our return journey, there was no clatter or noise inside the bus, but rather a meaningful silence prevailed. As we left the district of Nagapattinam behind us, we knew one thing, life’s greatest lessons are not taught inside the four walls of a classroom, but is learnt through experiences like these that will be cherished for a lifetime. |
