The despised become the cornerstone

Iam certain that the management of the AMRI Hospitals and the even the patients would have looked at the slum nearby and wished it was not there. I wished the same too whenever I went to a swank corporate Hospital in chennai which had a slum attached. The slum displayed all those characteristics that you consider to be unhygienic. I always walked off wishing it was not there. These poor tenements often times get harassed too.

Better sense prevailed on me and from one fine day I started looking at them differently. I realized that they in their condition of low estate end up taking all the shocks to keep the society together.

So when the fire broke out at the AMRI HOSPITAL in Kolkota, the TV stations were busy accusing the hospital staff (docs and nurses) –who are supposed to be caring for the patients- for aborting the ship to save their own life’s (except for P K Vineetha & Remya Rajan) Then you had the ‘trained’ fire personnel who using all their equipment contributed their mite. But then the heroes were the boys from the slums nearby who brought in some scaffolding from a building and climbed precarious bamboo structure in pitch dark, trying to help those trapped inside climb out.

“Every time we broke ope a window or stepped into a room, smoke was all we could see. says Sujit Kayal a Class 8 student who helped six patients get out of the windows to safety.(courtesy The HINDU)

The weak are strong indeed. The despised and rejected are the ones who respond with their heart spontaneously.

Related articles

• Braving acrid smoke, slum youths save several patients (thehindu.com)
• AMRI hospital fire: It was mass murder, cry grieving kin (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
• Medical staff accused of leaving patients as fire kills 89 (ctv.ca)

The General in a street fight

You know how the Generals and Admirals live and don’t die ? The power and pomp they carry around. In their hands rests the destinies of nations. There are some who know it and some who may not, yet the power bestowed upon them can change the course of nations. The streams in their mind are directed by the God Almighty himself, the supreme commander who sits above. They are the chosen people. On their shoulders rests responsibilities so heavy yet to bear that heavy yoke they are endowed with a special strength to bear it. They know no fear of death and suffering.

The guards around them are mere mortals who draw their purpose and strength from the Generals. Their pride is in securing the safety and comfort of the leader. For they believe they are born and made to live for that sole purpose, hence in their station they chatter with one another on various events that concern their own lives and the lives of their children.

These guards are bestowed with enormous power, the Dunamis (as the greek would call it), or the power to use brute force to repel all challenges. If a street brawl were to occur around the estate of the master these guards would use this Dunamis force bestowed on them, while the master within sleeps in peace. The General will never gird his loins for a street fight. In him rests the power of Exousia .. the power to exorcise – to speak and make things happen. For in the word spoken rests much power. Wasn’t it Nostradamus who said of the future,  that the world will be ruled by the ones who wield the word ?