Editor,
I had to travel down to Guwahati recently with my family and had an unpleasant experience at the bridge over Umiam where the repair work is underway. While lauding the Government for the repairs which were long pending and we all know the significance of this connectivity, I wish to bring to the notice of those in authority that those on duty don’t have the slightest idea of etiquette on how to deal with the public.
I know that they are essential staff who have to perform extensive duties sometimes under duress. However, this doesn’t give them the right to use abusive language while dealing with the public.
We were travelling early in the morning and as it’s winter, a bit of early morning fog covered the entire area . The policeman on duty had only a torchlight and a walkie talkie with him. He wasn’t wearing a fluorescent vest as is mandatory when manning a bridge under repair so as to alert motorists from afar; nor did he use the red light baton which he had with him. We were travelling at a very slow pace as we knew about the bridge being repaired and slowed down near the entry point. The worker there immediately started ranting at the person behind the wheel for no fault whatsoever. He then told us to park by the side of the road and began venting that we’d have to go to speak to someone at the office, though God knows which office he was talking about at that early hour.
I had to get out of the car and speak in the local language – that is Khasi- for him to tell us to carry on with our journey. I fail to understand what pleasure the police get from harassing the public like this.
Our state thrives on the tourism and hospitality industry and if those who are supposed to help in tourist inflow behave in such an uncouth manner what memories and stories would the tourists take back with them? It’s about time that the concerned departments hold counselling and etiquette classes on behaviour so that all benefit including the public who seem to bear the brunt every time.
I hope those in authority are taking note.
Yours etc.,
Angela Lyngdoh,
Shillong -14
The tragedy and belittling of real life heroes
Editor,
Arunachalam Muruganantham is a real-life hero. He invented a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine. His mini-machines can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads. Arunachalam generated awareness in rural areas about the need for hygienic practices regarding menstruation. His machine-made cost-effective sanitary napkins not only improved women’s health but also gave women an opportunity to earn by selling those napkins. A Bollywood film titled ‘Pad Man’ was made on his life. It was reported that the actor who did the role of Arunachalam earned Rs 40 crore for acting in that film.
Now, we will shift our focus from one to a dozen real-life heroes. When 41 labourers were trapped behind a 57m-thick barrier of debris that defeated all technology-based efforts to drill beyond 45m, the 12 rat-hole miners rescued them from the tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi. They did it by opening up the unyielding mountain debris by their courage, skill, patience, endurance and perseverance. Their heroic act freed the trapped workers after their 16-day ordeal inside the tunnel when the whole world was on tenterhooks for the results of the rescue operation.
The 12 rat-hole miners Munna Qureshi, Monu Kumar, Jatin, Nasir Khan, Feroze Qureshi, Debender Kumar, Saurabh, Wakeel Hassan, Irshad Ansari, Ankur, Naseem Malik and Rashid Ansari worked at a stretch for nearly 24 hours squatting inside a narrow steel pipe of 800mm diameter on their toes, crouching as low as possible with their knees folded to clear the debris with handheld tools to rescue the trapped workers.
A Lagaan like movie can be made based on this story. I say Lagaan-like because of the similarities between the number of heroes in Lagaan and in the tunnel rescue. In Lagaan, apart from the main hero who acted in the leading role of a cricket team captain, there were other 10 actors who played in the roles of other members of the 11 member cricket team. It is reported that the leading actor of that movie, now charges Rs 100 to 150 crore for his films beside taking 70 percent of the profit.
We can make a rough guess at how many crores the actors might charge to act in a film on the successful rescue operation at the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarkashi. But there are no prizes for guessing how much each of the rat-hole miners got after saving real human lives and making the seemingly impossible become possible.
Each of the rescue workers was awarded Rs 50 thousand. Beside this nothing more – no permanent employment – no house was given or promised. Wakeel Hassan, proprietor of the Delhi-based agency that provided 12 rat-hole miners for the rescue operation, said, “We have decided not to cash the cheques for Rs 50,000 that chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami handed to each of us at a function in Dehradun on Thursday. I had reacted to him about the paltry sum given to us and he said he would think about it. We are awaiting his decision.”
Had they entertained people by saving lives in a movie they would have been rich by now. Or if they could rescue an IPL team from a certain defeat to victory, they would have earned a bomb in the next round of IPL player auction. In the IPL player auction for 2024, one player got Rs 24.75 crore, another Rs 20.50 crore yet another got Rs 14 crore and so on.
This is called value judgement! While entertaining people with a movie or a cricket match deserves crores of rupees; saving human lives cannot be rewarded with more than thousands. Alas, people cannot be entertained by the act of real heroes who save real lives. So let people wait until a movie is made on the tunnel rescue mission. Certainly that movie on the Herculean task of rescuing 41 reel lives by 12 actors would be a real thriller and worth spending money for. Though the real mission failed to fetch more than thousands, the actors in the movie would certainly be honoured with crores for giving the audience goose pimples. I really admire actors and players for their painstaking endeavours to translate their potential into reality. But I feel terribly sad about how real-life heroes are being treated.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata