Saturday, July 18, 2009

ENCOUNTER WITH AILA

Bengal has always been prone to cyclone’s as it is situated just above the Bay of Bengal…Flood plays havoc every year in the districts of East Medinipur, West Medinapur and Bankura most…Even the city Kolkata witnesses water during monsoon due to heavy water logging in almost all parts of the city mostly Behala and Baguihati…But this year was something different…Moonsoon arrived 15 days before…and its entrance was so devastating making it a most dreaded cyclone in recent past…and was named Aila…
As always I was doing a story on the arrival of Monsoon, I went to Weather Department for the Directors Byte…there he declared that by 5pm evening Aila may hit the city and therefore fisherman are alerted and the cyclone is moving at the speed of 80 Km per hour…while returning office I had my first encounter with Aila…at about 1pm I saw the abysmal cyclone as it has playing the game of destruction even before its appearance in the city…Tree’s started falling from one side of the road to another even the iron electric post were unearth by the powerful wind that are blowing accompanied by heavy rainfall…I informed my Delhi office about this tandav but unable to reach my bureau office as the road was already blocked…My Driver alerted us anytime two trees that are standing beside the car can fall on us…as the wind is blowing heavily…through the window I with my handkerchief alerted the vehicle just behind us and slowly our vehicle went backyard…and both the trees fall as predicted by our forecaster driver but fortunately not on us…as the municipal corporation cleared the road at his work on war front we reached office safely…and provided the office with the devastating visuals of tree falling in the city and made my way along with my cameraman towards howrah bridge…and one cannot believe the sight the waves down the howrah bridge rises like anything…I had never expected Holy river Ganga in such a violent form…It was like covering Tsunami for me…by that time my beloved beautiful city Kolkata was already turned into a war torn city…buildings, boards, trees, electric post everything spread over the busy roads just before few hours…
As the Weather Department Director G.C Debnath declared, the cyclone will hit West Bengal near Sagar island and will gradually move towards the north of it effecting everyone coming its way and it is moving at the speed of 110Kmph…In the north the city Kolkata was shivering as it was to hit by the deadly cyclone by 5pm…All offices government and private were declared off…Schools, Colleges were closed early so that everyone could reach home early and safely to be with the family…but for we News people…It became battleground for every Journalists to grab every movement frame by frame to give news with visual to the people…that’s why like brave soldiers we were in front…I made a call to the State Home Secretary office to find the effect of Aila in the state, I was astonished to know that within just 2 hrs Aila has gulped 4 people in the city itself accompanied by 6 people in Howrah and Hoogly…That followed I was unable to trace the worst effected districts of South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas by then because of the disruption of telephone connectivity…The number flashed in the TV channels showed 27 then 38 then 45 then 58 then 68 and by now it had reached 137 officially…
As the clock was counting every minute and we started our countdown for 5pm…the city by 4.30pm seem dead without a single creature and vehicle on road… we all were in the office…I called up the Weather Director to find to my relief that the cyclone had diverted its route towards North west and the severe storm with a wind speed of 110 kmph, accompanied by heavy rainfall, preceded the cyclone touching Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan and East Midnapore districts at 110 kmph. We all in the office took a deep breath…and after having live bulletin till 9pm I made my way towards home I really cannot recognize this lively city…Aila had tortured her in every possible way…all the roads were full of trees…no lights in the city…the city was partially dark…In all possible lane and roads my vehicle reach my flat and I thanked my driver because of his courage in taking and distributing the news to the people… I personally had experienced this plight and I slept with the memories of my dream girl Aila…to wake up early as I had to go for coverage in the South 24 Parganas district where the Aila originated and played with the life of the people most…
We reached Kakdweep by train from there to Namkhana the last part of land before Bay of Bengal…by launch we reach the Sagar island where Aila originated from there we made our way towards north to find carcasses flowing both of human beings and animals…People are expecting relief but the state government seemed a bit slow in this worse affected area…people with whatever leftover they had standing on some highlands or island…I found myself helpless…as I had nothing to give to them in this ocean of need…I had with me only the visuals of their condition…by showing which I can do a little bit of justice in getting a little relief from state or central government…
After covering dead,cries,hunger and all that one cannot believe I reached office at 10pm and after sending my script and visuals I made my way towards home thinking of Aila…what this Aila is why this is named Aila…It seems Aila means coming but what does it really mean…after having reached my home I search for the world Aila,there was no any specific meaning found but just the name was proposed by Maldives…but really just not name but it had done all that one may not have believe just a day before…It had come and had gone leaving behind the cries of people…I prayed to god please never play such game with the innocent people unaware of such a natural calamity.

Joydeep Dasgupta