It is a story you have most likely not seen on TV.  It is a story you have most likely not read in the newspapers.  And it is the story you will most likely not learn in the text books.  For it is neither sensational nor glamorous nor controversial!

It is the heart wrenching tale of perished lives and annihilation of property!  It is also a heartwarming tale of humanity, where everything was done right under the worst possible circumstances.  

Chennai is a beautiful coastal city in Southern India, where the weather is constantly hot if not hotter.  Named one of the best places to live in the world, by national and international magazines, it is the cultural mecca of India.   Known as the automotive capital of India it is also the second largest software exporter and a major financial hub in India, just to name a few.   Life in this bustling metro came to a drowning halt when Mother Nature decided to unleash her fury with incessant rains for the past two weeks.    Rivers overflowed, dams breeched and sea water encroached into the hinterlands.   Small towns built upon marshlands and riverbeds flooded like never before in this otherwise dry and drought prone city.  The poor infrastructure built by a series of corrupt governments filled with immoral politicians and inefficient administrators, crumbled completely.    

As a result most of the city submerged.    Yet, her people emerged!

Her citizens born to the idea of “Be the change” came together.  They took matters into their own hands!  Rich and poor, young and old, educated and uneducated, breaking all barriers of religion, wealth and education organized relief and rescue efforts.  They did not wait for government agencies.  They did not wait for non-profit organizations.  They used whatever resources they had.   The wealthy arranged for relief supplies.  The able bodied waded through filthy, neck deep water risking life and limb to hand out emergency supplies.  The dutiful worked tirelessly well into the night giving up their sleep to continue with the search and rescue. The techno-geeks setup control centers to co-ordinate relief efforts.  And some of us watching the calamity unfold in the comfort of our own living room thousands and thousands of miles away, crowd sourced valuable information to support relief and rescue effort.  

And why was this beautiful story not publicized you ask?  It’s because it had humanity, it had altruism, it had compassion, it had love and most importantly it had peace!    

The volunteers exhibited no pride or prejudice. They brought their own cars and boats to rescue pregnant women, senior citizens and babies. They opened their homes to complete strangers and stray animals. They fed the hungry from their own kitchens.   They urged their friends and families to do the same.  Donations poured in from all walks of life and from all corners of the world.

The victims while watching with horror water closing in on them showed no greed or avarice.    They waited for their turn.  They shared what they had.  They took care of each other and pledged to be eternally grateful to their rescuers.

But out story does not end here!   Soon the water will recede, the sun with dry up and the volunteers will get back to regularly scheduled programming.  And a devastated city would still need to be repaired / rebuilt.   But this city now littered with the aftermath of the floods, has shown the world littered with discord and discontent, unity in adversity.   It has shown the rest of the world the possibility of peaceful coexistence.     And this is why this story needs to be told!

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