Darkness at dawn and dusk

While the state woke up to a major tragedy unfolding in the flooded waters near Nalgonda, a few hours away from Hyderabad, the day for the nation ended with terror striking Delhi, a series of bomb blasts ripping through the crowded markets of the capital. It was darkness at dawn and dusk for India this weekend, three days ahead of the festival of lights.

First, the cyclone wreaked havoc in many a district of Andhra Pradesh, with a lot of low-lying areas even within Hyderabad remaining water-logged and inundated. It has been raining continuously since 7.30 pm Friday night but none would have really envisaged the tragedy that was to unfold early Saturday morning. The Secunderabad-bound passenger train that set out from Repalle derailed just after Nalgonda as the tracks were washed away by torrential rains. The disaster occurred at 4.15 am when most passengers were fast asleep, their watery grave catching them unawares. Over a 100 people are dead, and with two bogies still submerged in water and a few dead bodies having washed away, the count can only go up. Continuous rains hampered the rescue operations, which had to be abandoned later in the day because of rising flood waters and keeping in mind the safety of the rescue personnel as well.

Even as the news of this natural disaster continued to pour in, a man-made catastrophe resulted in more death and destruction in Delhi as explosions ripped through three crowded markets minutes of each other, killing at least 70 people. It reminded one and all of the series of blasts that rocked Bombay about a decade ago. It is not really clear who is behind these blasts, but the needle of suspicion is very likely to point to the Kashmiri terrorists, especially since they come just ahead of the Diwali and Eid celebrations as well as the crucial talks between Pakistan and India on opening up the LOC to help the quake victims. Thankfully, yet another blast was averted by the timely intervention of a bus driver and the conductor, who found an unclaimed bag with explosives inside the bus. All the 35-40 passengers were asked to get down from the bus and were safe. The driver and the conductor were injured in the subsequent blast, and I pray that both recover soon. In yet another incident a bomb recovered from a bank in Chandni Chowk was defused by the bomb squad, thereby preventing another catastrophe.

This is truly tragic and my heart goes out to all those who are suffering as a result of these two tragedies. I hope they find the strength to get through these difficult times.

There has been many a moment during the past few months when I have wondered about the number of natural calamities and man-made catastrophes in 2005 the world over. Starting with the December 26th tsunami, we have had to deal with the American hurricanes, the Bombay deluge, the earthquake in the sub-continent and the torrential rains that caused havoc in various parts of the country. There were also the London blasts and now the explosions in Delhi. At a different level, I have had to deal with loss of personal friends and relatives. A year of death – that is what it seems like. And I can’t help but speculate about all of it coming together in a manner such as this.