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Sep122007
Underneath that flyover
A flyover collapsed in Hyderabad day before yesterday. Actually, one of the sliders supporting the bridge fell. Word spread like wildfire through SMS and conversations in buses and autos. Along with word spread anxiety. People wanted to know the effects and causes. The news channels showed us the effects, nobody has explained us the causes yet. 15 people died, some say 20, and knowing the way information is handled in our country, these numbers are as far away from the truth as the left end of the universe is from the right end.
The problem comes now. At least 15 deaths, and we don’t have anyone to blame. The Government’s in a tough state now, it can’t accuse cross-border terrorists or LeT. And it is a known fact that the monsoon was only a catalyst, not the cause. For those of you who don’t know Hyderabad, things aren’t exactly what you would call normal. We have experienced three blasts in the past four months, two of which happened on the same day. There is information that dormant RDX is present in some unguessed parts of the city. People are shying away from theatres and public places. And now this. Our city is suddenly all over the news, and not for enviable reasons.
The Hyderabad Times carried an article on the “Public Outcry� after the incident. Outcry? There is no as much as crying out, forget Outcrying. In a city where two seconds of looking at someone in the eyes will fetch you the “Kaiku Ghoor ra bey?� challenge, it is shocking that everyone’s sitting at home waiting for the TV to tell them what’s going on in their neighborhood! Not one rally, not one dharna, not even an attempt from the public to demand the truth. As far as our cops are concerned, handling of emergencies is the last thing you want to learn from them.
For those of you who still don’t know Hyderabad- our cops work a little differently. Their most historic act of heroism was to shoot dead five young civilians, still in the prime of their lives, to restore “peace� after the Mecca Masjid blast. When Bangladeshi writer Taslima was physically abused by MLAs in public view, a case was booked the next day- against Taslima.
Coming back to the flyover collapse- everyone’s playing the blame game. The Municipal Authorities have washed their hands off the matter, Gammon India has washed its hands off the matter, Water supply and Sewerage board has washed its hands off the matter, and so have traffic police. Everyone’s pleaded innocent- save the poor rain, which can’t speak. The government has suspended a few people here and there for “dereliction of duty� and other words that the public doesn’t understand, and booked a case against Gammon
India and is yet to explain how that brings back fifteen lives. It has also promised the families of the demised an ex-gratia of 5 lacs, which we know is not worth spitting upon. We Hyderabadis are a community rather than a city. We sit in Irani Chai dukaans, abuse each other with great amount of love, hog biryani like we will never hog again, (knowing fully well we will)and pride ourselves on any new thing that’s coming up in the city (naya flyover banra kahte?�) And when something like this happens, that pride slips away, in an instant. And our pride has had to slip quite a few times recently. It hurts.
More so because we don’t know whom to blame. Dazed and helpless, we stare at local channels to brief us. And those of us who don’t understand Telugu wait for the national channels to finish their movie reviews and star interviews so that we can get a glimpse of the “Breaking News�. Shameful! But the most shameful part of it is we are still sitting at home. Waiting for someone to take action, find out for us what caused the incident. So that we can sit and wait for someone else to take action to punish the parties responsible. And we also know that that will never happen.
Fifteen of us died, many more of us had our hands and heads broken, maybe because of bad construction material, maybe because of carelessness or maybe because we always passively sit at home and don’t do anything when the people who visit the same restaurants as we do, order the same lunch as we do, die and are reduced to numbers for the government to calculate how many lacs to shell out to pay for their lives. Some say this city is jinxed. I don’t believe in jinxes. Someone on the bus on the night of the incident passed it off as an act of God. Now, I believe in God- I believe in God the creator, God the merciful- I just can’t bring myself to believe in God the Toppler of Begumpet-Panjagutta flyovers.
The cause is somewhere out there. Aren’t we going to organize one protest? One dharna? One Morcha? Not even a a bandh? We won’t break one single window pane? Stall one single politician? Won’t we as much as even demand to know the truths? How passive can we be? How deeply scared? How tolerant of dominance, negligence and corruption? How shameless? I don’t like writings that inspire thoughts. I like ones that inspire actions. And I know well that here, I’ll fail miserably. Not one Hysderabadi will agitate. Not one of us will make one banner. None of us will raise questions. We will wait for the next incident- another terrorist attack or another municipal calamity so that more of us can die or bleed. We pride ourselves on being an IT hub. What It hub where you don’t know where the next kilo of RDX will tear out of the briefcase or when another 45 tonne steel slider will crash onto your car and liberate us from this anyway shameful living? If you are a Hyderabadi, you still at home reading this? Kuch kar miya
The views expressed in this post are those of the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by Mutiny.in
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angel
001
12:07 pm
Pehle Aap..Nice post junktrailer, but im sure a lotta people like you would be saying the same kuch kar miya…and a lotta people would be saying..pehle aap…
Its always difficult to Do some thing, easier said than done(no, I dont work for TOI)…
junktrailer
002
12:59 pm
@angel
True enough. I realize I’m talking more than I am doing. M trying to do a little more- a litle more to make myself proud. If it works out, I’ll be glad to post it next.
Gayatri
003
1:14 pm
There are so many practical things no one wants to talk about. Protesting for what happened and demanding an explanation is one thing. After all this drama, the Panjagutta area is going to remain as crowded as even. Going back home at 6.30 is going to continue being a nightmare. Now that they’ve sued Gammon India, will any one take over the reconstruction when the case is still on and it certainly will be atleast for the next 5 years. Is this going to become a vicious cycle?
The AP Govt wants to release a promotional ad showing all the wonderful safety measures they’ve undertaken to reassure the IT bigwigs. Do you care about what your own community thinks? I can go on and on… But like you said, we have to do something.. May we should use a forum like this to bring people together..
Happy
004
2:52 pm
I guess Hyderabad is jinxed. I heard the news an Indian Air Force Plane crashed in Hyderabad killing two pilots…
atul
005
5:16 pm
the article, the comments and the arguements. The issue is on the street. Hyderabad is not like it was before. Now we guys need to stop dying in the fight for money. There is something else that is more important. Responsibility! Our ignorance has brought us here.
Now we can sit at home and see which channel shows the news best or we could get out and find out the way to do something about. Gayatri is right. we need to use this forum to find like minded people and trigger a revolution. Thanks junktrailer.
Ravi
006
6:25 pm
Very nice posting from junktrailer
Fact is .. every one forgets about this after a week or so… including media, people, police, government….. and finally the report blames the poor rain.
And the suspended people will join the jobs very soon and they will get their salaries with interest.
Mahendra
007
6:35 pm
Very nicely written - evocative post. Thanks for sharing your anguish and anger…
saritha
008
7:23 pm
this article echoes the anguish of a common hyderabadi. but what i do not understand is the point of organising a bandh, taking out a morcha, or doing any such which will hinder the civilian activities…
remember when paritala ravi was killed??? so many buses…so many shops…so many people… whats the point…anything happens the burden goes on to the rtc which that corporation will eventually rub over on to the common bus commuters by increasing the prices of the tickets and then when it does…again a hartal…a morcha…a bandh .
isnt there another way to express the public’s interests? is hartal or bandh or something like that the only way to show the public anger? how many of these will be peaceful? how many of these have achieved what is wanted?
i do not know of the ways to protest that are other than these but i dont really go with this idea. i mean when the thing in question does more harm than good whats the point.
u take out a hartal…traffic gets delayed..people get stuck…ambulances are stuck in the rogue traffic…and no one cares…ultimately what happens….some stupid fools get their faces pictured and appear in the newspapers the next day and thats all…nothing achieved…except the patient in the ambulance being passed away…and the ppl stuck in traffic cursing away.
ha.
junktrailer
009
8:46 pm
@gayatri
True enough, but I think a forum should only be a starting point. A starting point for an action rather than a closed box where discussions arise and discussions die.
As for Gammon India, it is preparing a detailed report, blaming the collapse on ‘unprecedented rains’. ‘Unprecedented rains’ in the middle of the monsoons? What’s next? Unprecedented blizzards in antarctica? Unprecented snowfall in the himalayas??/ Who knows na?
The company itself has a tainted history. Check this out befor ethe day ends:
http://www.deccan.com/home/homedetails.asp#Gammon%20fudged%20figures%20on%20dams
@happy
And that’s not all. The Congress President’s son allegedly shot dead a real estate guy only yesterday.
But then, that still doesn’t make it jinxed. Those flights were on a rather difficult and risky exercise anyway(radio telephony failure). I haven’t been convinced about the Bermuda Triangle’s Jinx, so let’s not get metaphysical about Hyderabad.
@atul
thanx. We are together in this one.
@everyone else: Me and Atul are making two short films based on the bomb blasts to enter for the MIFF, though we hardly stand a remote chance.
Also will do a documentary film on the floyover incident. (Which could counter that promotional [read- hypocritical] video A.P Govt’s making) At least we can say good night to each other with clear consciences, knowing we did something. ANyone coming forward to contribute, u’re most welcome.
@ravi
True :(… I assure you I’ll be working my backside off to stop these memeories from being erased. We have to learn from these incidents, so that they are not repeated.
@saritha
You have spoken absolute sense. For every protest we organize, there is always the risk that the innocent will suffer. Rioters end up targetting the wrong people. And then, you were right about when there’s more harm than good, what’s the point?
But then, the greatest harm we could do is sit hand in hand, doin nothing. We don’t have to disrupt traffic to show our solidarity. Every month, my friends from Heroes Project organise peaceful rallies and vigilance to increase AIDS awareness. We could take a cue from them. Non violent protests organized by the correct people (read- those like you and me) always drive home a point. And as Indians, we should know that better than anyone else. We might not change the system overnight, but what the hell, we’ll know we at least tried, and stood up for what we believed is right.
Paritala’s case wasn’t even remotely similar to this one. Fifteen civilians have lost there lives here. We’re lookin up for a social protest. Paritala was a factionist, responsible for murders and feuds while he lived, and injuries and inconveniences after he died. that was a pure political nonsensical aftermath.
Ther’s got to be a way- to speak out, without killing those in ambulances. Let’s find that way.
Amar
010
1:42 am
Thanks this article kept me busy at least for 15mins..I don’t know how much time it took for you to compile this. End of the day good time pass for both of us
Sorry for being practical. Yes… It happens only India.
2S
011
2:44 am
Much as folks might call it timepass, Kudos on a well-written article here. More than anything, it’s quite vocal and it has a subtle sense of emotion attached to it.
But unfortunately, we can write a hundred thousand pages on these incidents but little will be done on the ground. At this stage, all we can do is hope that one day we’ll be in a position to take serious ground action. For now, we live in the hope of being a safe nation.
nidhi
012
7:57 am
really well written… i agree with you… i think its not too much to ask… cause i have questions that need some answering. but i guess everyone wants company to do some natak… no one knows where to look! this might be a good start! nice start junktrailer :D! keep at it! and for the documentary…. just let me know when and where!
Priya
013
2:46 pm
“And when something like this happens, that pride slips away, in an instant. And our pride has had to slip quite a few times recently. It hurts.” - It really does.
I’ve seen blasts and accidents happening in other cities and a small part of me used to be thankful that my city is safer. But not anymore. And I’m one of those who’re shunning malls and movie halls - and more recently, going anywhere near Punjagutta/Somajiguda/Begumpet stretch with those menacing-looking flyovers… it doesn’t take a lot to shake our sense of security, does it?
I agree there weren’t any protests or rallies to complain or show our anger - I think it has more to do with the fact that as Hyderabadis, we’re not used to this. We’re not used to seeing our city in the news for the wrong things. Some of us (like me) are still in denial! The real shocker would be when the economy goes down due to lost investments and opportunities due to the blasts - nothing hits a hyderabadi more these days than a drop in real estate prices.
Now whats with the other flyovers, I dont know. I’m not sure I want to use them when they do open up finally.
2S
014
11:27 pm
Follow-up comment: I spoke to an old friend in Hyderabad today - he wasn’t entirely pleased. Perhaps it’s gotten to him. Bombay is a city that can react and recover quickly from such situations - Hyderabad and Bangalore can’t, so I hope things improve for the city. And urging the authorities to look at reviving it seriously.
junktrailer
015
11:35 pm
@priya
Whebn I visited any other city during any of my projects, I used to feel proud - that I’m a Hydbadi.. and now…..
Tomoro’s abig day, and its goin to be a big week, how safe will the celebrations be? Can we dance with teh same carefreeness taht we used to last year and before? Will we be able to even drag ourselves to cellebrate in midst of all that frisking and security arrangemnts which will constantly remind us that we ar no longr safe and that we have to start miostrusting peopele????? sad na?
Ravi
016
8:25 pm
As i said some time back… every one forgot about this incident. You hardly find any news for this event.
If you have stats for this page… you will notice hardly any hit for this page.
Ravi