The Catastropic Disaster!!!

It would have passed out as just another lazy summer afternoon for me if my wife had not called up and told me "Did you watch the news?? Carlton tower is on fire!!...Think about that?? We were supposed to be there for lunch and due to last minute changes the Lunch had changed into dinner" with that the fortune of about nearly 10 people (There were about 10 members to attend the official luncheon) had changed for good.I was left dumbfound for a moment. I gaped glued myself to the TV looking at the innumerous helpless people stuck inside the unfortunate building while thousands others watched from outside lamenting at the helpless situation.

The very thought that i could have been one among the helpless crowd(had my wife been there) made me shudder.

I did not know whether i should feel fortunate that my wife who missed going there because of the last minute changes in the program or should i regret at the bad luck of hundreds of people who were not lucky like us.

 The very thought of "could have been..probably.." sends a chill down my spines. It could have happened anyday friends, how many of us have not enjoyed an evening with our beloved ones at TGI Fridays or IndiJoe in the same building??

It's very natural phenomenon that some lessons in life are learnt hard, and unfortunately the huge price we pay for the hard learnt lessons are the valuable human life.

Coming from a shipping background it was very natural for me to think of the workprofile in shipping where safety and pollution are given utmost importance to such an extent that 80% of work relates to the safety and pollution parameters.

Not to forget the painful, strainful surveys, inspections, audits in this regard which makes the mincemeat out of the officres of navy. The fine for violation of safety and pollution norms are as severe as imprisionment of the defaulting officers.

What surprises me is ...while great emphasis is trusted on safety and pollution related matters on seas, same is neglected ashore. People are of contention that they are always safe ashore. Added to this is the greed of owners of Shopping malls and other commercial buildings who deviate the safety norms.
Even more surprising is the fact that there are no regular inspections carried out in these malls to ensure the implementation of the safety system.

Few years back a Child accidently jumped to death from top floor of one of popular shopping malls in Bengaluru.
A shopping complex was gutted in fire due to short circuit in Majestic area and none of the shop owners had insurance coverage because they were illegal occupants.
The above two incidents should have been a real eye opener which eventually could have led to some safety regulations. But unfortunately, it is yet to take its shape.
Incidents like these keep fading out of memory, but fresh ones keep proping up and haunts us.

How many more disasters are we waiting for, just to learn a lesson on safety?? Are we really so bad learners??
It's always easy to comment and write reams and reams on what could have probably been done to save the lives of the people, but i think it's really essential to take this as a wake up call and bring in a system of practice to ensure safety implementation of the system. Lest we should see worst disasters happening in future.