It has frankly been hard to feel nice about the new year. I spent 31st night at home, alone & wondering about the thousands who would start the new year in the bleakest possible manner. I was surprised that on 31st night, as I was heading home, the party atmosphere in the downtown roads of Bangalore was as usual - roads were blocked with waves of party hoppers - and I was left wondering.... Constant media updates definitely add to the dampening of the spirit. On the 1st at noon, a bunch of us spent 5 minutes at each of our homes medidating in silence, with prayers for the affected. I also came across this article on Rediff - this describes a particular Auroville Ashram on the eastern coast of Pondicherry that was washed away, miraculously saving the Dutch family that lived and maintained the ashram. Exactly a year ago, I was there for New Year.
On a more positive note, never before have I seen such a huge volunteer effort happen. People from all walks of life - professionals, doctors, software engineers, hundreds are taking time off to go & spend some time in the affected areas. NGO efforts are being publicised more and people seem to trust them more than leave things to the government. This morning, I saw the person managing the Tsunami relief blog featured on NDTV. According to this news item, Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi has decided to adopt an entire fishing hamlet of Devanapatinam in Cuddalore. People are becoming more aware to selfless efforts being put in by hundreds of people. I have been receiving a LOT of queries from people outside India asking - "We would like to do something more than just donate money. Tell us what we can do sitting here outside India". A good thing that happened on Friday, 31st was that we were able to ship about 18 cartons of medicines (mostly chlorine, for water purification) to Chennai & Sri Lanka courtsey Jet Airways, for free.
As usual, please watch the latest updates on AID, Tsunami Relief, Asha for updates on materials, volunteer efforts required, etc.
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