Chennai Floods: A real(i)ty check

Chennai receives rainfall in the last month equivalent to what Great Britain received in the last year and the highest Chennai received in the last 100 years"

As I continue to ponder over the losses this city has witnessed over the last few days, this was a reality check for most of us and felt this experience should be communicated to every person who feels what we have is just not enough. 

1) Our needs have never changed beyond the basics - food, clothing and shelter. How much ever we build on Maslow's hierarchy of needs the roots are still the same.

2) Technology was the first to crash - There were no mobile networks, no internet and no other forms of communication alive, if things would have worsened, for all you know, we would have started to communicate via pigeons.

3) The significant credit limits of Debit or Credit cards weren't the ones which helped but hard cash in hand which helped us survive. Thanks to the blackout in the city, there was no electricity and most ATM Machines had stopped functioning.

4) If there were 4 people in the room, we spoke to each other without gazing at the phones or any other diversions, when was the last time we all did this? When was the last time you checked on your neighbors if they were okay.

5) There is no greater feeling on earth than helping people. No effort is small, let it even be a minute of service and we witnessed support flowing in from all quarters.

6) Maximum utilization of minimal resources - How many times would we have heard of this? This was the time to put this phrase into use with lack of food and water and we learnt to conserve electricity to charge our batteries.

Thanks to all the neighboring states and the volunteers who helped the city plan a relief quickly. With the heated debate still on as to what urban planning had been done and if this man-made disaster would be a recurring problem, we quickly learn to move on.

Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than you have been,to stand up taller than you were. With faith in humanity restored we get geared to bounce back with a spirit which never refuses to die.