WHEN TIME STANDS STILL..... Reading this post about Kerala will restore your faith in humanity

ALL THE PICTURES USED IN THIS POST ARE COLLECTED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE FACEBOOK,WHATSAPP AND INTERNET OVER THE PAST WEEKS

This post is about all the good things that came our way during one of the most hard times our state faced.
A recent post being circulated in social medias says that post disaster people have become more gentlier,more friendlier. They smile at each other when passing by. There is no rush while standing in a queue. No honking of vehicles in traffic. Sometimes nature has its way of reminding that we are nothing in front of it. Your money , your ego, your religion, your political views can all vanish just in a snap. Moments like this make us think who are we in this world. But still there will be some rotten apples which I want to believe is a very few percentage. But we are not going to talk about it today. Today we will just focus on that silver lining of every dark cloud.

Kerala just witnessed one of the deadliest flood havoc of the century.

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More than 300 people lost their life. Many people lost their homes and are left with nothing forced to take refuge in relief camps now.

SOURCE

Maybe it will take years to build that was washed away. But despite all this we are over coming.

Amidst this it was also a time when Kerala witnessed the courage,warmth,sympathy and love of our people. How they set aside all their differences and came together to overcome the disaster that destiny threw upon them. The time when everyone realised that our money , our ego , our religion, our degrees nothing can save us from what was destined to happen.

In this post I want to share some of the most heart warming stories and images during the flood. How 'unity in calamity' became our motto and when 'God's own country ' turned into 'humans own country' I am sure some of the images will bring tears to your eyes.

The first one is about our flood heroes~ our fishermen community.

They are now known as superheroes of Kerala who saved us from being washed away. Nobody asked them to help. Even before forces like the army,navy came into action these superheroes without cape saves many lives while their own home were submerged in poverty and struggle. They didn't mind how their boats(their only method of earning a living )would be damaged after the relief works. They worked day and night and saved every life they could. Where trained forces like navy and army struggled they swung in action without hesitation. Flood affected Kerala owe their life to these people.

During the trawling banned season they live in utter poverty. No one cared about them then. Even then they poured all their compassion during a time like this.

This is the image of the fishermen folk praying before leaving to the flood effected regions for rescue operations.

Their selfless work doesn't end there.

This is Jaisal KP .He didn't have to think twice before haunching in the dirty flood water when he noticed an elderly woman and a young mother was finding it difficult to climb on to the rescue boat. They are indeed the superheroes of Kerala.
And now when the Chiefminister promised that every fishermen will be provided a remuneration for their relief work one of them said that they don't need it because they were saving fellow brothers and sisters.

This construction company owner gave all of his heavy duty trucks for relief works of which many of them are damaged due to water entering in the engines. But he doesn't care.

This little girl from Tamil Nadu have been saving for 4 years to buy herself a bicycle. When she heard about the flood she happily donated all the money towards Chiefminister's relief fund.

Similarly this young blessed soul gave away all her pocket money that she have kept to buy toys towards the fund.

This elderly couple who runs a small level textile shop came with the a huge supply of clothes and bedsheets and packed it neatly to provide to the relief camps. The guy who went to collect never expected such genorousity seeing the condition of their shop and was shocked by their gesture. He asked if he could take a picture so that he can remember them forever.

This was written with the help of clothes on the roof of a house where naval helicopter saved two women.

This young mother was air lifted from her flooded house.Soon after that she delivered her baby. The pilot who saved her can also be seen in pictures.

When a nearby shrine flooded the picture of Mother Mary was transferred to the puja room of a Hindu house.

This school hall was opened as a relief camp for the rescued. Before moving back to their homes they didn't forget to return the hall spotlessly clean.

Students of an Engineering college developed these power banks and supplied them to the relief camps where there were shortage of power.

The contribution of the young generation was exemplary. As soon as the news spread about the flood they co ordinated and formed online control rooms that helped in effectively leading the rescue teams to reach those in needy. They made tracking sheets according to priorities. Control rooms and call centres were opened for 24x7 . More and more volunteers joined from all over Kerala,even from abroad. Every home of the non effected side turned into mini control rooms. Everyone was doing whatever they could.

Collection points were opened at various points to collect food and other materials to provide the people in relief camps. People even brought home cooked meals. They didn't mind waiting for hours in queue at these collection points for the materials they brought to be collected. Celebrities,common people,polititians people from all fields came together and worked as a unit without any complaints.

This flood also taught us how social medias like Facebook and Whatsapp can be used effectively in times of havocs. People stranded on their roof tops used the 'live' feature in facebook to share that they need help. They used Whatsapp and Google to share their exact location. Youth then collaborated datas and passed on the information to the rescue teams. These social medias played an important role in saving many lives. People even from abroad shared information about their relatives stuck in their flooded homes.
Also information about do's and dont's post flood,health measures to be taken are all being shared through these medias.
The below image says it all.

Google as always

This is Tovino,a movie actor. He was in the forefront of rescue team. He opened his house for the needy people. Such selfless,humanitarian act.

Rajamanikyam an IAS officer. He didn't sit in his office just giving instructions to his officers instead he was there for everything. Be it unloading of materials in the relief camp or in the rescue mission.

Kerala will never forget the services provided by these young duty bound,non corrupt IAS(Indian Administrative Service) civil officers during the flood. They kept a close vigil and was physically present be it in the relief camps or in the rescue team. The motivation they gave to the people, how they co ordinated all the activites ,how effective their instructions were,they are such an inspiration for everyone. They are now role models of every youth. Every young boy and girl want to follow their path and want to be like them one day.
Prasanth Nair,the tech savy officer whom people fondly call as Collector Bro(Collector is the head of district) uses Facebook to interact with the people has added a post asking people to share all the images,videos and stories of courage,sympathy, compassion and love during the flood times to create an album in the end so that everyone can remember how people of Kerala stand together and overcame a worst time.And ofcourse the comment section was flooded.

Apart from this our state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan , the Police force , Fire force , The Indian army , Naval Force, Air Force , National Disaster Management Force , The Kerala State Transport Corporation ,Kerala State Electricity Board all performed their roles tirelessly for many days.

This is a picture(above) of Electricity board staff putting their own life in risk so as to save the life of others.

Along with it ,the common people.

We also lost the life of some people while they were busy saving others. May they rest in peace,such blessed souls. They will forever be Kerala's superheroes.

Apart from this lot of help poured from outside the state as well as other countries.

A gang of doctors from Maharashtra flew to Kerala.

A group of sex workers from Maharashtra donated 21,000INR cheque to the Prime Ministers Relief fund.

Truck loads of relief material from Tamil Nadu

And many more............

If I include every stories this post is not gonna end here. We Keralites wants to thank to each and everyone who helped from the bottom of our heart. We will never forget and shall repay your kindness.

We are in the process of coming back to a normal life. But we need more funds to rebuild our state back to its former condition. All the roads,bridges, airports ,rails need to be fixed. More than 1000's of houses are to be rebuild. Tourism destinations like Munnar and Wayanad have suffered a lot during the flood. We need to build back many things from scratch and we need help.

So my fellow steemians, will you help us ?? Even if it is a very small amount we will be grateful for ever. God bless all .
Ofcourse I can't force anyone but still..
If you are willing to donate please contribute any amount directly to Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund
https://donation.cmdrf.kerala.gov.in/

Please resteem.

Thank You
@silenteyes