Mission US, HUMANS…

Am forced to write about this after a few days of the human tragedy that took place Elphinstone road station in Mumbai…

Will just try to explain what must have happened during that time from my perspective…

Date : 27th September, 2017

Time: around 10.40 in the morning

Place : Foot over bridge at Elphinstone road station

It rained incessantly… People ill prepared to face it… Office time so heavy rush at Elphinstone road… Due to rains people rush for shelter under the roofs of the foot over bridge… Down pour continues… People start gathering on the bridge… Meanwhile 2-3 trains pass by… Hundreds of people get down leading to further crowding… The stalls on the streets adjoining the bridge make the gateways smaller… Due to crowding, people start suffocating… Suddenly a rumour spread about a short circuit or maybe something else, as there are many theories to it… A stampede to save oneself… The human tragedy takes place…

The administration is slow to act as it is shocked too… Within minutes the rescue begins without the help of administration… And help arrives… But by then 27 people have succumbed to pressure and injuries… Many are injured…

The blame game begins… People blame the administration of Railways… The political parties want to score brownie points to gather votes… They join the blame game… In the end administration is blamed and looked down upon…

A question arises in my mind and I leave it upto you to think and answer… What led to this human tragedy? Will we never blame ourselves instead of passing on the buck?…

In our panic, we blame everyone else but ourselves… But we as Indians, Mumbaikars, should we not instill some discipline amongst us?… Some self discipline, some thought, some thought oriented action…

Was going through this thought and came to know about a street play to be staged by Hinduja colleges students under the banner of Panaah… They wanted to educate people about the tragedy and enlighten them about what to do in such situations… Mission Human Safety is what they called it… They performed two plays, one at Churchgate station and one near Charni road station…

I really appreciate these students for their efforts, though I did not get a chance to see it… But a silver lining in the black clouds… The generation growing up today is far more smarter than mine atleast… It is far more vocal and active about the things happening around themselves… So they did not react but came up with an innovative approach as they look at life in their own way… Hats off to the team at Panaah, Hinduja College…

Looking forward for more from them…

Atleast after hearing about this approach my trust in Humanity has survived and will live on as of now…