There may not have been a bigger “Oops” moment in the year than in the Miss Universe beauty pageant when the host, Steve Harvey, announced Miss Colombia as the winner instead of Miss Philippines. Both were equally gorgeous no doubt, but down in Colombia they take these beauty contests very seriously, equating them with national honour, much as we do with the fortunes of our cricket team.
How more cruel could fate have been to anyone than Miss Gutierrez for whom the music swelled, flowers were given and a crown placed on her head on live television even as a worldwide audience applauded her non-stop for a couple of minutes until Harvey cut in with his unique mea culpa. And yet this was not a matter of life and death. “Things happen, it’s live television,” said Donald Trump, who used to own the pageant rights until they took it away from him for his anti-Muslim rant.
There may have been another “Oops” moment on the bund of the Chembarambakkan Lake near Chennai sometime on December 1 /2 when someone must have felt like Harvey. Did he make a wrong call on the water level? Did he wait too long? Questions are bound to rack the decision maker as the entire flooding of south Chennai could be put down to that one “Oops” moment. It is on such slender threads that the fate of several people of a city as hanging. In the modern age, there is no place for the brave boy to put his finger in the dyke and save the city.
While the Chembarmabkkam sluice gates will remain a dreaded symbol for Chennaiites who suffered the deluge in 2015, what really stood out was in the manner they stood up to the challenge.
Indeed, the average Chennaiite could be voted the ‘Indian of the year’ for his resilience in the face of adversity. The smiles on the faces of women being ferried out from their balconies in a middle class locality on a makeshift raft composed of an oil drum and coir rope was symbolic of the courage of the Chennaiite. There was no sign of distress, no anxiety in a dangerous situation.
The histrionics usually associated with the Tamils as seen in melodramatic movies was absent, at least on the English channels when several people were interviewed on their plight in the floods.
The angst was restricted to the Tamil channels with a political twist. But that kind of rant against the rulers can be heard any day on those very channels. The common man bore the problems posed by the flooding with far greater equanimity than could have been imagined. The spontaneous response of those who helped Chennai in its days of distress was another outstanding human trait on display in the year.
While it is debatable of who was the real villain in compounding this largely natural disaster, where we failed the most administratively was in the absence of a clear warning system. Chennai was not unique in being hit by flooding of biblical proportions. The north of England, including the cities of Manchester and Leeds, and many countries in South America were also deluged by some of the heaviest rainfall seen in years thanks to the worst El Nino phenomenon in 15 years.
Swelling rivers broke their bunds everywhere, in Lancashire and West Yorkshire in the UK and in several South American countries like Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. A remarkable facet was no loss of lives was reported. Tamil
Nadu lost in excess of 400 people. Maybe, some died because they were adventurously close to the swirling flood waters. More poignantly, elderly people were discovered dead standing atop the dining table and clinging to the ceiling fan even as the deadly water kept rising and drowned them.
Before a very wet Christmas weekend in northern UK several weather warnings were put out, the Met office itself issuing two highest-level red weather warnings (indicating danger to life), the Environment agency issued 31 severe flood warnings as well as hundreds of warnings issued by Fire services going from street to endangered street to spread the word. In the face of impending danger, we did not do as well. This was our great failure of 2015.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
