Goodness

Photo Courtesy: USA Today

It was a sad beginning to the morning when I read the headlines on Times of India website – “At least 56 people killed, 70 injured as train derails in Spain”. I pray for the ones who lost their lives. However, here, I am not to talk about the deaths of the victims or sorrows of their relatives or the people responsible for this tragedy (as one theory refers this as terrorist attack).

I want to talk about few lines I read while I was going through the details –

Clinics in the city were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organized free rooms for relatives. Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the region on special flights.

Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts, worked overtime to tend the injured.

It was good to see this kind of reporting, which is normally never done by Indian media. But then I went back to the headline and saw “Reuters” which led me to self-correction 😛

Tragedies – natural or manmade – are something you cannot avoid completely. These are realities of life. But there isn’t just a negative side to all tragedies. There are some positives as well that comes out of it. Unfortunately, our media repeatedly fails to bring out the positive sides of it. A part of the reason, I feel, that we think our country is going to dogs is because good things never reach us. Like in the Spain tragedy, where Reuters cared to mention about the great giving nature of people of Santiago De Compostela, hoteliers giving priority to humanity over business, fire fighters and hospital staff who did not forget their duty in spite of work issues, it would be so good to see Indian media following the same. So much influence on public mindset, they owe it to this country.

I started writing my blog in 2008 and discontinued after about 6 months. In the beginning of last year, I came to know about The Better India through one of my friends. The fact that the website is devoted to spread good things happening around the country itself excited me. I started writing for them and eventually I started writing for myself (this blog) as well. It was TBI that reinforced my belief in the existence of humanity and the fact that nothing can happen to this country as long as able administrations like Hyderabad Traffic Police and people like Udaybhai, Raghubhai, Ankit, Meeraji and Richard are here.

The description about the devoted citizens of Spain also reminded me the amazing discipline Japanese people exhibit after disasters – mainly natural. Western world was shocked by the rare display of tremendous calmness and discipline among Japanese after the 2008 Tsunami. While the rule in the rest of the world is that looting follows any natural disaster, they were yet to hear any such thing from Japan. Japanese are role model of how you respond to tough times. It reinforces the fact that humanity exists within every human being (Japanese are not the mutants). It is up to how you let the inner human being come out.

While we do have to solve our problems and one cannot ignore the wrongs that are happening in the society. But today, as it appears, the 10% wrong and 90% right are projected other way round by the Indian media, which creates a very depressing scenario. It’s time, Indian media understands that and learn from Reuters. Till that time, let The Better India try and keep the balance.