Bangalore had woken up to a dull day with the sun behind the clouds for most of the day. The nip was less but the roads saw fairly heavy traffic thanks to the IT professionals, along with their families, making their weekend calls and merriment!
As time races towards the end of '14, the city is all decked up to ring in the new year. There's festivity in the atmosphere and an air of cautious optimism - about the impending future - seems to be the overwhelming, prevalent mood. And it was this idyllic setting that suffered a setback with the depressing news of three disasters - two incidents, taking place far away from us and the third, right in this city, in our backyard!
(a) Disaster in the air.
Air Asia flight QZ 8501 - an airbus A320-200 carrying 155 passengers and 7 crew members - had
gone missing, 42 minutes after taking off at 0535h local time from Indonesia's Surabaya. It was
headed for Singapore. While rescue operations are on there has been no trace of the aircraft, making
it an uneasy, tearful vigil for the relatives of the passengers!
(b) Disaster at sea.
The ferry, 'Norman Atlantic' - flying the Italian flag and carrying 477 passengers - was gutted by
fire off the Greek coast, in the Adriatic Sea during the morning hours. It's been ascertained by
workers on board that the fire had erupted at the parking bay for vehicles, in the cargo hold.
Ferry disasters, usually, show the leeway taken in ensuring foolproof measures in disaster
management by the concerned authorities - sadly, a global attitude!
(c) Disaster on land.
And in our own backyard, as the city of Bangalore is gearing up to ring in the new year, an IED
had exploded on the Church street, a few minutes past 2000h! We'd traversed past the point, about
half an hour prior to the explosion on our way to my friend's house near Ulsoor. A 38 year old
lady was the instant casualty, hit by the splinters of the comparatively low intensity device - some
cause for comfort that a major catastrophe hadn't taken place, huh!
My prayers for the deceased. Hope their relatives are able to tide over these stressful times!
Tailpiece.
The evening at my friend's place was a nice affair. My classmates, residing at Bangalore, had got together to celebrate our arrival at the garden city - damn cute of them! And Uma and Venugopal played the perfect hosts!!
Our 'saarthi', Shivamurthy Reddy was brusque, to the point of being rude and had brought us back in record time!!! Was it a reflection of his anger that we'd gone late into the evening? Many of the drivers, hired by the Tours and Travels guys are uncouth and ill mannered. Wonder whether their antecedents have been whetted thoroughly by their employers........otherwise, disasters are waiting to happen.
As time races towards the end of '14, the city is all decked up to ring in the new year. There's festivity in the atmosphere and an air of cautious optimism - about the impending future - seems to be the overwhelming, prevalent mood. And it was this idyllic setting that suffered a setback with the depressing news of three disasters - two incidents, taking place far away from us and the third, right in this city, in our backyard!
(a) Disaster in the air.
Air Asia flight QZ 8501 - an airbus A320-200 carrying 155 passengers and 7 crew members - had
gone missing, 42 minutes after taking off at 0535h local time from Indonesia's Surabaya. It was
headed for Singapore. While rescue operations are on there has been no trace of the aircraft, making
it an uneasy, tearful vigil for the relatives of the passengers!
(b) Disaster at sea.
The ferry, 'Norman Atlantic' - flying the Italian flag and carrying 477 passengers - was gutted by
fire off the Greek coast, in the Adriatic Sea during the morning hours. It's been ascertained by
workers on board that the fire had erupted at the parking bay for vehicles, in the cargo hold.
Ferry disasters, usually, show the leeway taken in ensuring foolproof measures in disaster
management by the concerned authorities - sadly, a global attitude!
(c) Disaster on land.
And in our own backyard, as the city of Bangalore is gearing up to ring in the new year, an IED
had exploded on the Church street, a few minutes past 2000h! We'd traversed past the point, about
half an hour prior to the explosion on our way to my friend's house near Ulsoor. A 38 year old
lady was the instant casualty, hit by the splinters of the comparatively low intensity device - some
cause for comfort that a major catastrophe hadn't taken place, huh!
My prayers for the deceased. Hope their relatives are able to tide over these stressful times!
Tailpiece.
The evening at my friend's place was a nice affair. My classmates, residing at Bangalore, had got together to celebrate our arrival at the garden city - damn cute of them! And Uma and Venugopal played the perfect hosts!!
Our 'saarthi', Shivamurthy Reddy was brusque, to the point of being rude and had brought us back in record time!!! Was it a reflection of his anger that we'd gone late into the evening? Many of the drivers, hired by the Tours and Travels guys are uncouth and ill mannered. Wonder whether their antecedents have been whetted thoroughly by their employers........otherwise, disasters are waiting to happen.
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