Chennai flood and the 'south Indian' victim

Now that Chennai is slowly getting back to its feet, here's something I thought about the north-south divide that raised its head during the latest calamity.

Some north Indians (or should we just call them non-south Indians?) seemed to have gone to the extreme of celebrating the deaths of Tamilians. These guys are obviously the cretins all societies have.

However, I also saw a number tweets, posts and memes that cribbed about the north Indian's apathy to a major south Indian city's plight. That was hugely misplaced and even hypocritical.

The manner in which people -- commoners and celebrities -- from Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra took the initiative to help Chennaiites and Tamizhnad in general was indeed remarkable. Funds and relief material was collected and transported with alacrity. My own family did its bit -- perhaps the first time a collective action was taken by us during a natural disaster in some other place.

Yet, I don't remember this kind of mobilisation of resources from Bangalore or Kerala or even Tamizhnad during the Assam floods or the Uttarakhand floods or the annual Vidarbha drought. I, for one, don't remember sharing as many posts, contact details, or anything related to the floods as I did during the Chennai disaster.

Neither do I remember the Assamese or the "north Indians" cribbing about "south Indian apathy". If anything, I recall a certain cretin's govt seeking out ONLY its own people to rescue.

So, proximity of an event is obviously a big determinant of our response. Madras has a huge emotional connect with most south Indians. Tomorrow if Bangalore was to face a similar situation, my own response would perhaps be much more intense. It's got nothing to do with any hidden antipathy.

People need to get over this victim complex. South Indians did a good job in helping each other at such a massive scale. Don't crib about what north Indians did.

(I agree about the media's irresponsibility. Some senior journalists -- even those sitting in Chennai -- who could have made a difference to the coverage in the initial days of the catastrophe displayed shocking reluctance to do anything.)