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 THE HIMALAYAN TSUNAMI !

(Uttarakhand Tragedy-June 2013)

Tsunami by earthquake that upset the sea,

Rolled over land, killing three lakh of lives with effortless ease;

This was what Asia witnessed on 26^th Dec. 2004.

And then, the trauma and turmoil knew no bounds!

And in June 2013, the Tsunami by sky struck and devoured

Uttarakhand and neighborhood inundating land, in a hurried haste!

Kedarnath and Badrinath bore the brunt of the destruction,

The pilgrim homes visited by a hundred thousand, a day!

The mud slides and tumbling rocks; avalanches and snow falls,

Couldn’t hinder the ‘never say die spirit’ of the holy men and families!

Swelling in numbers, right from the start of the summer pilgrim season,

They kept ascending the Great Himalayas braving the cold.

Triggered by cloud burst and accompanied by incessant rains,

The tourists and pilgrims could find no shelter from the raging nature!

As brave as they, and showing their devotion, kept chanting God’s name,

They climbed the hill tracks, unmindful of the flood and the land slide!

The more the number; the more the slide!

The earth gave way, plunging thousands into the icy-rivers!

Many got buried by the sliding earth and the cruelly blended soil;

And thousands were run over, by big boulders and massive trees.

A pathetic sight to those who stood by and left with no clues; 

They watched their beloved ones getting crushed and carried away.

By now, the deadly Tsunami had left its trail of death and destruction,

For the world to see and shed their pitiful tears!

The local administration and the government were left stranded;

As the amenities they had were inadequate to handle;

The grievous situation and the rising death toll.were unimaginable;

In ones and twos, corpses were unearthed and buried in haste.

Earth movers emerged and paramilitary rushed out;

Along with choppers and rescue men, civilians joined hands;

Kept digging and searching for the ones who survived the Himalayan fury!

A helicopter crashed and army men got killed along with survivors on board.

A terrible sight and untold misery; and stories shot out from heart-broken people;

For days and weeks victims without food, survived the onslaught of the icy weather!

‘Pilgrimage’ is the life time wish of any devoted follower, irrespective of age!

Then, what’s the reason for the peril of so many? Could we just think of?

Was it the negligence in controlling the multitude? Oh! No! Then,

Is it due to, the tracks of rivers that bring life are being destroyed by human?

Or, the felling of trees and over exploitation of environmental resources, that

Transform life saving rivers into death traps, causing flash floods?

Terrible! But one has to digest it even if he doesn’t like it!

It’s all man-made and a repercussion on our own exploitation of nature;

Stop for a while, and think of the ones who have lost their dear and near;

Give them a helping hand and spare your resources for a common cause!

OH, Uttarakhand, you got partially buried yesterday! What has happened cannot be undone;

Kedarnath and Badrinath, are hidden like sprouting seeds of today! There is hope!

There is endless action and abundance happiness in store, for tomorrow!

You will spring up in the helping hands of our brotheren and spread out like a banyan tree!

                                                 AND

When the offspring spring up, keep yourself ready to nurture them!

Prove that you have a compassionate heart to serve your fellowmen.

Never slumber and wait for the next chance; as opportunities of this sort are undesired for.

Wake up, and start nursing your own countrymen, right at the first instance!

                                                FOR

                         'A stitch in time, saves nine'