Sunday 23 May 2010

When death dawns

The death of 158 people when the plane overhot its runway in a 'tricky' airport is indeed spine chilling. It's a cruel reminder to all of us of the transient nature of our existence and just how quickly life can be snuffed out. Like all tragedies this too has many sub-plots that are even more tragic:
  • Like 16 members of one family being wiped out
  • Like a son, rushing back to India to witness his dad's funeral, going up in flames
  • Like another son rushing back for his mother's funeral meeting the same fiery death
  • Like air hostess, Sujata Survase, writing on Facebook last week, "Diversion + Delay+ KWI Sector = Quick Death. A case of clairvoyance?
  • Like the 40 year old co-pilot telling his mom that he is now all ready for marriage
  • Like there are five more such tricky airports in India where an action replay is waiting to happen.....

It is difficult to find reason behind the ways of God. Maybe when we are less grief striken and less shocked we will find ways and means of rationalising as to "Why" God taught "What" in this tragedy. Till then let us just pray for the peace of the departed souls.

RIP ladies, gentlemen and infants. May you find comfort, solace and eternal peace in heaven.

Hoping that you will get our postcard,

Mailing this on behalf of the entire SVC family.

15 comments:

Vimal Parmar said...

Shocking... Very unfortunate.

Lakshmi Patro said...

Death is the only truth one has to face but not this way. God give strength to those who lost there near and dear ones.

Everyone wishes for a peaceful death but God has his own ways.
This incident reminded me of this bhajan http://bhajansonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/itna-to-karna-swami-devotional-song.html

Nargis said...

Arun....

You are right...this is hardly the time to analyse death, leave alone dissect the 'whys' and the 'wherefores'...In any case the news channels are not leaving any stone unturned. For the time being let us just pray for the souls who are no more...!!

Vinita Deshmukh said...

What's absolutely shocking is that two PILs were filed in the High Court by citizen groups, one PIL was filed by them in the Supreme Court warning of such a disaster due to the geogrophical landscape and the design not adhering to the safety norms required (the length of the runway that is) in case of an emergency landing, but the PILs were dismissed with the courts asking the state govt to abide by the norms. It didn't and so many innocent people have lost their lives. TV channels are only focussing on Air India management and service - they must investigate into the criminal negligence of this infrastructural disaster and Praful Patel has no right to remain as civil aviation minister however media savvy he might be and a blue eyed boy of the govt. It's the biggest national shame and needs to be portrayed that way.

Vinita Deshmukh said...

Please read all about the Mangalore runway story of how the citizen group fought to halt shoddy work:
www.esgindia.org

Seetha said...

Very sad indeed! This sort of thing reminds me to tell those near and dear to me how much I love them!

Naresh said...

Callousness on the part of AAI ! Highly condemnable !

Meera Hari said...

Proves yet again that we are just puppets in the hands of a higher power.

Meera Hari said...

At a time when revamping airports and shifting them is the order of the day it beats logic that an airport the location of which has been declared as dangerous remains put in the same place

Vimal Parmar said...

Meera: You will have to post your picture and a brief write-up about yourself on the Blog... Otherwise, you know the rules...!!

Meera Hari said...

Thank u, Vimal, for telling me. Have done the needful

sushil agarwal said...

Really tragic but true. May their souls RIP.

Vimal Parmar said...

Not done Meera...! Not a one line intro and that too on the comments page. Independent post with all details is the norm. No short cuts :-)

Tasneem said...

Just returned from Mangalore this morning. Met some of the relative of those who succumbed to the accident.The plight of the victims and the survivors is heart-rending.

Enarkay said...

Even as we mourn the departed at Mangalore another man made tragedy has taken place near Kharagpur.Human error is bad enough but human terror is the worst kind of cowardice.