Unnatural Reactions To Natural Calamities

I'm not a firm believer of the 2012 story and the fact that the world is going to come to an end on Dec 21st. However instead of something huge happening all of a sudden, like it happens in one of those over hyped Hollywood movies, I do believe that some really ugly and uncomprehendable things are going to happen at totally random intervals.

There have been quite a few natural calamities in recent times. The Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004(this was the time we all learnt a new word, but still don't know the wise guy who put a T and made it silent as well), The Eykjafjallajokull (thank you Wiki for the spelling) volcano in Iceland last year along with a massive earthquake in Haiti and the big freeze in UK, the cyclones in Australia just last month and the most recent Tsunami in Japan.

If at all one were to look for a common factor among all these events, it would be the unpredictability. In spite of being so technically advanced, we have failed on numerous occasions to take preemptive action and save people. Everytime we switch on the news during any of these times, we see the bureaucrats advising people to stay in a safe place and also rallying troupes to carry out evacuation. When they can actually predict the speed, direction and carry out a potential disaster analysis after a cyclone or Tsunami has hit, I really wonder why they cant do it before actually getting hit, and save us of all the trouble. The intensity of such a natural calamity is always measured in number dead people. Just makes you wonder whether the countries are actually competing with each other by portraying that they are helpless, just to get some pity sex.

The worst part about these is the aftermath. Not with the destruction, not with millions worth losses, not with the number of people dead but with the numerous 'relief fund' scams. I remember @kevinpp24 and @piersmorgan tweeting a link repeatedly through which you could contribute to the cyclone victims in Australia. But even they were not aware that it was a scam and someone just gobbled up all the money.

Its really heart wrenching to see the most hard working country in the world go through all of this. I believe everyone has a soft corner for Japan for the simple fact they have become the world's third biggest economy within 60 years after they got nuked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just makes you question the existence of god or any other super power even more. Frankly, none of explanations with god or karma makes sense in these situations. We as humans have to understand that natural calamities do happen and no prayers are ever going to stop them.

P.S - For all you gadget freaks, I'm sorry that the Japan disaster overshadowed the iPad 2 launch. 

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Fight or Flight Response

Imagine walking on the road late in the night and you happen to bump into a couple of drunks. As expected they start talking nonsense and start abusing you. You are alone and do not see any other soul nearby. Watcha gona do? You can either run away from there hoping that you'll not run into a similar situation or you can play the Rocky soundtrack in your head and throw a couple of punches at them. Don't worry the drunkards will have a higher probability of punching a tree than you, considering their balanced state.

The former response is called as flight and the latter is called as fight. The fight or flight response is common among animals and humans when they are under stress. If at all a deer is attacked by a lion, it runs and thus opts for flight. Rats tend to respond in a similar manner when attacked but throw a fight when they are cornered. We all have experienced these scenarios and generally speaking males tend to opt for fight and females tend to flee when confronted in certain situations.

Now lets apply this theory to our day to day lives. You have a manager who constantly criticizes you or overloads your schedule with unwanted or his share of work. What do you do? My solution would be to fight. When I mean fight, I'm not suggesting one to scream or abuse the manager let alone kicking him in the groin area. A fight here can be looked at channeling your aggression to get the work done and increase your productivity thus filtering out your anger. If one decides to flee in this situation by getting depressed or having those Monday morning blues throughout Monday and for the rest of the week, it not only undermines your potential but also makes you a bouncing board for your manager's self satisfying releases.

These reactions can have a resounding effect on a team. The attitude of one person in team can have a cascading effect on others. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the Indian cricket team was known for playing cricket matches overseas just for the sake of formality. They had convinced themselves that they couldn't win a series overseas and would just go and play to help the BCCI make some money. But look at the situation now. There have been numerous records broken in the past few years and some of the senior players and even tailenders in the team have shown a lot of resilience. VVS Laxman's fighting spirit and classy knocks have made the team believe that they can win even after following on and even when they are 8 down. This is just one of the many examples that show how the responsive actions can impact the overall attitude of a team.

Not all the time does the fighting instinct help you. There are situations when the best option is to flee and not look back.  Yasi the cyclone that has lead to mass destruction in Australia, is a prime example. Whether it is the Yasi or Katrina or something as a big as the Tsunami, your best option is to flee.

We humans exhibit these kind of responses in numerous situations in our daily lives. While it all boils down to choosing flight or fight, what can cause more damage is the tendency to choose  the same option everytime. I guess Yeddy is a classic example of a guy opting to flee whenever he is under stress. He spent more time in the temples and donating millions of the tax payers' money to them when he was needed in the office. Now that his chair is became weak, he flew to the banks of a river to please the gods with his striptease.

P.S - Just a dozen more days to go, have to see which team will fight and eventually take the Udaan with the ICC cricket WorldCup.

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