There Cannot Be a Bigger Tragedy Than This

8/14/2019 There Cannot Be a Bigger Tragedy Than This

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There Cannot Be a Bigger Tragedy Than This

http://amazingtruelifestories.blogspot.com

HI,I am Narrenaditya,an award winning creative director/writer from India.Iam currently

working on two major Bollywood projects one of which is a hindi remake of aSouth Indian blockbuster of 2009.I will be directing these big budget filmsI read about this tragic incident almost a decade ago. It was just a

small five line news item that appeared in a local news paper inmy city of Hyderabad, India. But it still keeps haunting me today. Ihave very strongly felt that the whole world should stand up andtake notice of this great tragedy and offer their salutations to thebrave lady involved in this. I tried to visualize the whole tragicdrama with my creative eye and penned it down properly in anarrative form for the convenience of the reading world.Please go through..

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It happened in the August month of 1999 in an average coastal town of Orissa,India..It was a town with around ten thousand population...It was raining cats and dogs there for almost a week..Life to say the least,was paralyzed.

The communication link with the outside world was cut off long ago..

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.AndOn that eventful day..It was around 5 AM in the morning..Almost all the people of the town woke up shocked as they found poolsof water flowing around them with a terrifying noise.

Before they could realize what was happening, the levels of waterstarted rising drastically and there was no escape route for them asthe heavily gushing water was hampering their movementsStill they managed to run out of their houses but pathetically found

themselves stranded in more and more of flood water.. The water at that time was up to the waist level and was graduallyrising..

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The shocked many tried to reach that handful of high rise buildings inthe town only to find them overflowing with people.While the lucky ones could barge inthose unlucky were shunted outAnd it was still very heavily raining at that time..With the passing of time..

Rains didnt stop.. The rising of water levels didnt stop.And the plight of the people didnt stop..All the streets were full with people and full with water..

Some people were trying their best to come out of the water but thelevel was constantly rising and was making life miserable for them.By then almost all of them have very silently realized that they areslowly heading towards a country from whose Bourne no traveler hasever returned..But there were still some people shouting for help ..A few some were weeping out of fear.

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While some were down low spiritedA few some were goinghystericalChildren and the old aged were the worst affected as one by one of them started dying a silent deathA helpless death..

An unnoticed silent deathUnfortunately so..

All the remaining of them there wanted to live Just live. Do something. But live..Helplessness.Dddaammmnnn helplessness was bogging them down..Questions and questions were frustrating them..Do..??What to do..???How to do..????How..how..??????????????All they want from God at that moment was..Life. Just life. Nothing..Nothing elseNo riches,no moneyNo egos,no jealousyNo holier than thou attitudes..No one-upmanship..No false shows of prestigeNo clashes,no rivalry,no religion,no exploitation in the name of God.nosuperiority,no inferiority,ADITYA Page 4 1/30/2010Nothing..nothing..And nothing else..

But life and life alone..But less do they know

That..In the court of Nature there is no room for appeal..

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But still they were doing their best to survive.. They were praying forlife.. Praying for those helping hands..Praying loudly, praying silently.Praying and weeping..Weeping and prayingPraying for their survival and weeping for their loved ones

They were praying and praying and praying.. Thuddddddddddddd..Before they could realize with what force death strikes when it strikes..It was all over..All their dreams, all their plans, all their aspirations..

With one blow of death..With one deadly blow of DEA..THHHHWere washed out in a momentA sudden rush of water flowing from a broken dam nearby, struck themsilently wiping them away off their feet.

.The water that was so essential for the survival of humanity on thisplanet has silently eliminated themAnd after that

There was absolute silence. ..Fearful silence..With only the sound of water echoing around..

Just the sound of free flowing water creating terror... Thats all....And..And..From that dangerously flowing deadly waters..And from among those dead..

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Rose a woman..A poor young woman in her late twenties..Rose like a phoenix out of the ashes..During all that painful time she was fighting..Was waging a lone battle..

She just did not remain silent and immobile by offering prayers to theinvisible..She was trying to move..Come what may..Move..And then finally she moved..She was a Telugu speaking lady from the Srikaulam district of AndhraPradesh..She was undeterred by the fury of water around her..Unmoved by the dead bodies of those who till a moment ago were herfriends and neighbors..

Unfazed by the calamity that just served a deadly blow..She has complete faith in herself that she can move and she knows itvery clearly that she has to move and move ahead out of that goryplace.Because..She has a goalShe has a strong purpose to live..So she moved and moved briskly from there..Mustering all the courage. Gathering all the strength..Leaving all the dead bodies behind..Leaving all the people and the town..

And swam and swam and swamSwam across the flow of that fearfully flowing water,Swam across every hurdle..Swam across every street and corner..

Pushing away all the dead bodies..Not only of her fellow human beings but also of their cattle..She swam..Braving the storm..Braving the floodsBraving against the fury of nature and the fury of God..And moved ahead

Till she reached a lonely standing Palm tree..It was a tall and a lonely Palm tree eagerly waiting to receive thatbrave lady..After reaching the tree, she paused.. Looked at it once..After making sure that the tree can give her enough protection..She moved towards it and then slowly and confidently reached to thetop of the tree and lay settled there..

Then..

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And Then..SheVery fondly..Very gently..

And very carefully..Kissed her beloved four year old son..Her goal..Her Life..The sole purpose of her existence..For whom she braved all that ferocious storm and its fury..For whom she braved the nature and God.For whom she braved everything and did everything..

The boy was weeping all the way..Weeping with hunger, weeping with fear, weeping with pain..But she held him tightly in her protective arms and resorted to that

courageous act only to save him..She lost her husband in a tragic accident a year ago. Now she is alonein this world with only that four year old boy on her side..She wants him to live forever. And she wants to live for him forever..

That is all. No tall claims and no tall order of wish list..After settling on the Palm tree she closed her eyes for a moment andwiped her sons face with her sari and then wiped her face that is fillednot with water but with sweat.She was then a more relaxed lady as she reached her first goal of safety..

Then what???

She looked around.She looked at her sons face....

Though not weeping, the boy was silent but was looking weak withhunger..She kissed him again..And again she looked around. This time with the hope of findingsomething for her son to eat..

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But to her utter disappointment she could only find water and watereverywhere with not even a drop to drink..Left with nothing else to do, she decided to relax for a moment andthink about the further course of action..As she so does there are question and questions clashing in her mind.

She knows pretty well that her problems are far from over and that shestill has a long way to go..But her son is keeping her steady..Of course she can weather any storm for him.But how long...?????..Another question..Dont know..Only God alone can answer..She looked down...

Though not raining the water was steadily growing in level there..She knows that the Palm tree is too tall and she can be sure about the

protection from the water level..So, that way no worry..She looked at the boy.. He is slowly closing his eyes and falling intosleep. He is too tired to sustain..She carefully pulled him further close to her and held him tightly to herchest....What a plight..God sometimes is so unkind..HE turns HIS face away from us when we need HIM very badly..

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Even the most sinful and the most cruel personality in this universedoes not deserve a punishment of such severity..So what is her mistake...???????????????????.Her whole body was shivering with chill and every bone was achingwith pain....She knows that she has to bear with everything and wait till the waterrecedes..No way..She lost all the strength to swim and knows it pretty well that it will bea sheer act of stupidity to swim any further without any sight of land ora tree nearby..So she choose that tree. She was waiting..Waiting silently. Waiting with hope and waiting with despair...But she was waiting..Waiting for that help from those invisible hands.

Those invisible hands that created this world. This universe. Thisnature..

This humanity,its birth and its death..

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She was waiting.. That is all she could do..She may not know the theory of Predeterminism..May not have heard about the dualism in nature..May not have read about the Advaita and the Visishtadvaita schools of thought and philosophy..But for sure she knows one thing..Her son and his well being. And her duties towards him. Everythingelse is unnecessary..

That is all..

She did all that she can do to save him and it is time for God tointerfere and save them further..But will HE or Wont HE..????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????............

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As she was so waiting..Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours with no sign of any relief around..

The croaking of the frogs, the unsteady flow of water, the unbearablesound of heavily blowing wind were terrorizing the whole atmosphere..She was slowly losing her hope..It was around 4 pm..

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And she was already sitting on the tree for more than five hours andthat too in the same position..She lost all her strength..She was draining and was sinking both mentally and physically..She slowly closed her eyes..

That time.. That timeShe heard that sound..What is that????????Her hopes returned...She became highly attentive and alert..Concentrated more on the sound.

Tried to analyze..No doubt..It is definitely the sound of some motor engine..She hurriedly looked into that direction..

She couldnt believe her eyes,as she found a helicopter coming in herdirection..

She didnt want to take any chance..With eyes wide open she looked into the direction of the helicopter..

The helicopter was appearing closer..She did not want to waste a second..Lifting her son in one hand and holding the branch of the tree with the

other she carefully got up and turned herself towards the helicopter. Itwas a coast guard helicopter of the Indian navy pressed into service bythe government for flood relief operations.

There were around six guards on board with life jackets...She waved at them..Mobilizing all the bodily strength into her voice she screamed loudly.

The guards did not notice her and the helicopter passed off..She knows and knows pretty well that it was her last chance to have

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any chances of survival..She screamed again and again and louder and still louder..And that time..

The guard sitting near the rear window of the helicopter with abinoculars in hand heard the scream and noticed her..

He waved at her as a signal that he noticed her..With the rejuvenation of hope, she too waved at him in response.. The guard then instructed the pilot to take a U turn and turn back thehelicopter and go down as nearly as possible to the Palm tree..She was noticing everything with a subtle smile on her lips combinedwith a great relief..First, the helicopter hovered around the area of the Palm tree for a fewmoments to assess the altitude and then slowly descended down tothe maximum permissible level..Later it remained stagnant there as one of the guards slowly dropped arope ladder on to the tree, instructing the lady to hold it properly....

She tried to grab it but due to heavy winds the ladder moved aroundand went beyond her reach for a few minutes.. She tried again andafter a few initial misses she very smartly grabbed it with a singlehand..

The guard in the helicopter, who was holding the other end of the ropeladder, smiled in appreciation of her smartness as the other guards too

join him in holding the ladder firmly.As they all look eagerly, she made sure that she was holding her sontightly with one hand and then tried to hold the ladder firmly with theother..After making sure that everything was perfect, she very carefully got

up from the place where she was sitting and moved.All the coast guards were watching her every movement very keenly..

Cautiously holding the boy in one hand she did not forget to kiss thetree as a thanks giving gesture..And then slowlyVery slowly.. Left the Palm tree..Seeing her moving from the tree the helicopter too started to moveforward..After parting away from the tree, she was now on her own,hanging inthe air and standing on the last step of the rope ladder..

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It was altogether a new ordeal for her now.. The wind was so heavy..She was finding it extremely difficult to hold the rope firmly ,but stillmanaged to stand firmly on the ladder and looked down..Down there the water was still ferociously flowing and the winds were

very heavily blowing around her with a more heavy roaring sound..It was all so very frightening..It can frighten even the strongest of the strong..And the poor lady was very week to sustain thatStill fighting against all odds and all the whims and fancies of nature,she was still trying hard to stay composed, and at the same time wasstill feeling terrible to overcome the fright..She closed her eyes for a moment..Cautiously monitoring every movement of the lady the helicopter wasslowly moving ahead in synchronization with the position of the lady.Instructing her to hold the rope tightly the guards then started pulling

up the ladder carefully.... The distance between the helicopter and the lady was approximatelythirty feet and she was standing on the first step of that thirty feetladder. Due to heavily blowing winds the guards were finding itextremely difficult to hold the ladder firmly..

They have to first hold it firmly and then pull her carefully.. The weather was inclement and completely unfavorable for a smoothsailing..

The wind was mercilessly throwing the ladder in every direction and itwas making life more difficult not for the guards and not for the lady

But for the boy.. The boy was literally going breathless.. The sound of the heavy winds, the sound of the helicopter enginecombined with a typical lashing sound of the helicopter propellers were

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all creating eerie sounds that are normally experienced in any of theAlfred Hitchcock films..

The lady was trying her best to hold the boy very firmly but since bothof them were very wet, her hands were slowly losing the grip over theboy...

Observing her plight a guard then decided to help her and slowlystepped on to the ladder to come down.And exactly at that point of time it started raining very heavily slowingdown all sorts of rescue operationsmaking her extremely anxious and restless.

The hapless boy in her hand was becoming very slippery though shewas doing all that she could to hold him tightly. Unfortunately she wasfeeling the looseness in her grip over the boy which was making hermore restless, more unsteady and panic..

The boy was not weeping but was looking pathetically into his motherseyes expressing great fear. There was so much of pain and agony in

his eyes which only a mother can read and understand..Unusual for his age the boy was still trying to support his mother. The lady too was looking at her son and was trying to cajole him.. The boy was still seeing deeply into his mothers eyes.. The lady may not understand but that time around she foundsomething unusual in his eyes..Something..Definitely something..Really really unusual..What is that..Did the boy see something..

Was he trying to convey something..If so..What..???What.??????????/Whatttttt..???????????????????Are any coming events casting their shadows..?????Did he receive any hint from the super natural forces..?????????

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A sort of a chill ran through her spine shattering her whole mind andbody..She was observing him with anxiety. Observing him with fear..Observing that..

There was a gradual change taking place in the face of her son and inthe looks of his eyes..She was observing that..

His eyes were seeing something beyond the reach of human vision andcomprehension..May be he was seeing something about the future..His future..

Their future..Was seeing something about his salvation from this sinful world.Something about his separation from his beloved mother..Something inexplicable..Something metaphysical..He wanted to convey all that to his mother..He was trying to tell his beloved mother about what he was seeing.

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But there was something inexplicable again that was holding himback..Is that his tender age that was preventing him from conveying hisfeelings and observations or is that the more powerful nature that wasstopping from opening his mouth..But the boy was trying.

Trying to tell his mother about the signals he is receiving from thecosmic forces..About the indication he is getting from the Gods in the heavens..From the angels of His service..He was trying..Unable to understand her sons plight, the lady was still trying to cajolehim..

The guard on the ladder was still trying to come down.. The helicopter was still trying to take them out to a safe destination.. That time it happened..And happened in a whisker..Suddenly the speed with which the wind was blowing till that time gotdoubled..And as a result a thick drops of rain had hit her face very forcefully..For a split second she closed her eyes..And..In an effort to hold the boy more firmly the lady lost the grip for amoment..

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Just for a moment....And in that just one moment..It happened..What should not have happened..Happened..

With his eyes filled with faith that his mother is there for him the boywas still looking deep into her eyes.. The mother too was looking at him..So also the guard and the his colleagues..And then..With a terrible shock..She finally understood the language of her sons silence and tried toprevent the inevitable..But that was too late..For whom she weathered such a storm..For whom she fought against the nature..

For whom she did everything beyond her capacity.. That boy..Her beloved sonMore beloved than the most beloved..Slowly..Slowly slipped off her hands..Like a fielder in a cricket ground juggling with the ball before droppinga catch,she too juggled with her dear son for some time..But failed...As she was helplessly watching

The boy first got separated from her..

Lost his balance..And then did a somersault with all the plight,agony and trauma in theworld...But during all that process..He was still looking at his mother..Was looking deep into her eyes..She was helplessly helpless and hopelessly hopeless..With eyes still wide open he turned away from her and bid her adieu.A soulfully sad goodbye..And went down falling..Falling..

And..Further falling..And finally touched the dangerously flowing flood waters underneath..And vanished out of her sight,in seconds..She was watching..So does the guard on the ladder and also his colleagues.....................Over..

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All over..All the battle and the furyAll the courage and the bravery..Are all over in one by millionth of a second..Shaking her beyond comparison..

That is all..She went into a terrible state of shock to say the least..Million thoughts struck her mind at once..And one thought struck her mind a million times..Billion times..

Trillion times and zillion timesorey nannaaa..nenu choosey prapancham lo nuvve naa sooreeduviraa..orey nannaaa..nenu choosey prapancham lo nuvve naa sooreeduviraa..orey nannaaa..nenu choosey prapancham lo nuvve naa sooreeduvi

raa..orey nannaaa..nenu choosey prapancham lo nuvve naa sooreeduviraa..(Son..My dear son..you are the light of my world)(If only am gifted with all the space on the web I would write the above

Telugu language sentence a zillion times) The helicopter was moving slowly..

As tears were flowing down her cheeks..She closed her eyes.. There was darkness..

Opened them....Darkness again..Looked up..

Talking to herself and going into a state of delirium..She questioned the invisible Gods.Why and why and why...??????????..What is that sinful crime Icommitted to deserve all this pain.?????????"She knows that she will not get any answer..

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She looked around..In desperation,In utter helplessness..But she found only silence.....Unbearable silence..

Unusual silence..

As if all was not yet over..As if something more painful was to followWith their eyes filled with tears and minds filled with doubts all thecoast guards were looking at her with bated breath..

She too looked up at them helplessly..PalelyBlankly..Poignantly..And finally..

Thankfully..Later..Looked around,once againLooked at heavens..And lastly..Looked down at the waters that consumed her beloved son..Suspecting something tragic,the coast guard on the ladder wasshouting at her throat fully and tried to move down briskly..

Tried to come down quickly.. The other guards too were signaling at her with all the physical signshumanity can understand..But she has already gone into a shell,into a world of her own where shecould neither see anything nor hear anything or understand anything..She was going into a fit of rage as that one above mentioned thought

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was knocking her constantly..Shaking her constantly..Rattling her constantly..She closed her eyes quietly for a moment..Composed herself..

Chanted prayers..Coming down swiftly and shouting at her the guard was using all hisexpertise to reach her..Now she opened her eyes..

Took a deep breath.................Her mind was now clear and calm..She has taken the decision..

The unmentionable and indescribable decision.. The coast guards were watching her..And also the pilot..And also the palm tree..And also the five elements of nature..Everyone, everything were watching her with bated breath and raptattention..But..

They just remained watching..As the right hand of the great lady that was holding the rope ladder tillthat point of time..

Left it..Left it with unmentionable pain..Left itWith unmentionable trauma..

That was all..It all happened in seconds..

The coast guard on the ladder tried his best to reach her and hold her..It was all too late..

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As they were all watching her helplessly..SheSlowly,,Very slowlySlided down..

Down..Down..AndFurther down..Like a kite cut off in mid air..And with a huge..

Thudddddd..Crashed into the waters..And in seconds her body was consumed by the water and vanishedbeyond sight as the brave saga of the extraordinarily courageous ladycame to a tragic end..

The coast guards couldnt believe what they have seen..Even if they have believed it,they may not have digested it..Even if they have digested it...One life may not be sufficient for them to erase it from theirmemories..After that..

The flood water flowed quietly as if nothing has happened.. The guard on the ladder moved up with a heavy heart.. The helicopter moved on..We moved on..Our lives moved on..

Our world moved onBut..But..ButBut..........................A Tragic End..............

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There Cannot Be a Bigger Tragedy Than This

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