The Hindu Business Line : If only banging our heads can make us saner...

WHEN an event of the magnitude such as what happened in Kumbakonam a few days ago hits us like a sledgehammer, we suddenly wake up to remove thatches, unmindful of all the cobwebs in our minds. Visuals were for the brave-hearted. But whatever way we view the incident, the conclusion is the same - that it was not inevitable.

As with any other major tragedy, there are more theories than newspapers can print - such as that vaastu considerations had kept an exit closed, that all the teachers were present at a nearby Ganesh temple for worship leaving the kids to fend for themselves, that all this is because of divine wrath at postponing of consecration festivals and so on. Many hypotheses may simply be unverifiable, while the rest may rely but on conjectures. It is saddening that already political parties are trying to derive mileage out of what snuffed out so many tender lives.

Banging our heads against walls may not bring back the dead but it seems there is justifiable reason to do so to at least realise that we are so inept not only in taking precautions but also in dealing with crisis. For us, therefore, it is not an issue that traffic on roads that are near schools are not regulated properly endangering children's lives; nor that auto-rickshaws ferrying kids are overcrowded and accident-prone.

An education system that derives satisfaction in herding children into rooms where they are to sit obediently under threat of teachers' punishment is not going to generate any leadership qualities in them to deal with crises. Let us not delude ourselves into thinking that we expect kids to behave like Casabianca of Felicia Hemans: "The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled; The flame that lit the battle's wreck/ Shone round him o'er the dead."

Responsible adults, when faced with critical situations, deploy knowledge they keep ready for such a contingency; and more important, they take initiative boldly.

Ask around in the office to find how many know what to do if a colleague were to complain of `stroke-like' symptoms. Result of such a survey can give one a stroke.

Even those who know are most likely to chicken out when truth stares in their face in the form of someone badly in need of prompt attention. At the very minimum, even if the above two requisites are absent, one has to at least give way for those who would help, rather than collectively display paralysis coupled with heightened curiosity by blocking passages.

Again, we need to bang our heads in being insensitive to those getting treated by flooding the hospitals with cameras and politicians with their entourage. Wonder what a doctor can do when pushed by henchmen leading their neta for a VIP visit, in far from sterile conditions.

Let us hope the next generation - at least so much of it that manages to survive despite our ineptitude - reacts better when faced with calamities.

mail to:E&OE@thehindu.co.in

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If only banging our heads can make us saner...

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