Its Diwali vacation! I along with my family was travelling
from Bangalore to Trivandrum to my in-laws house, in Bangalore-Kanyakumari Exp.
Around 8:15 AM in the morning, the train was stopped in the
midway, 10 mins after leaving the Thripunithura station. We thought it’s
stopped for some regular signal. After waiting for around 15 minutes, I
enquired with the chaiwala, he said, “there seems to be some problem with the
track, the railway officials are looking into it, mechanics were coming from
Ernakulam to correct it, it would take 1 hour for the train to move again.”
All our reaction for it were just “Ahhh… !!!”
“It’s gonna delay the
train again…. ”, said my wife with disappointment.
We felt happy, when the train moved at 9AM. We reached
Trivandrum at around 1:40 PM, which is 1 hour late from the scheduled arrival
time. We cursed the train for its slowness and left the station.
This happened yesterday…
This morning, when we opened today’s daily, there was small
news about the incident with the title, Train
saved from de-railing!
Mr. Alexander, from
Thiruvankulam spotted the broken track, informed the local key man, local key man
informed the local station in-charge, and through him the engine driver.
Knowing this, the loco pilot has reduced the trains speed. In an attempt to
save the passengers in the train, Mr Alexander took his daughters chudidhar
shawl and ran over the track towards the coming train.
Men came from the local station and fixed the problem. It
took just 45 minutes for the workers to fix the problem.
This news was reported, in local edition, in 14th
page at the bottom.
I myself happen to read this, because I traveled in the
same train the previous day, and it was my family whom this man Alexander
saved, by his responsible behavior.
Just in case if this track problem was not noted, and there
were a huge accident! Apart from the personal tragedy that we would have had,
the news would be a national headline.
All news channels would have reported the issue with all due
attention, all writers would come forward in analysis report of railways lack
of effectiveness! A complete analysis on the track maintenance etc., All social
shares would have hit a record high, with the photos of the tragedy and the
stories of the victims!
With all condolence! All condemnation! All talks! This would
have hit the national headlines!
When a tragedy
happens, its news value is huge!
When the tragedy is
prevented, the news value is zero!
Pathetic!
We can’t blame anyone for this nature of focus! Even for me,
this news gets value only because I was part of it. Otherwise, this news would
have been of no value for me as well.
We always tend to search for negative around us, and we cautiously
loves to read negative news compared to positive ones. This is the most
precarious decision we take.
Let’s appraise the positives around us, only that would make
a better world. We should realize this!
