C’est La Vie or Until It Isn’t.

 

Keralam, my little state in South India, has been witnessing terrible weather over the last few days. The sky decided to open up into a relentless pour. Within a few hours, many parts of Keralam were flooded. Landslides added to the chaos. While initial estimates suggest losses in crores, the cost of human suffering will, as always, remain incalculable. Even as I write, the television screen is continuously streaming heart-wrenching footage of the extensive damage across the state. Even amidst the unfolding tragedy, political opportunism has already begun. Some politicians are busy directing manufactured or manipulated ire at the government, misplaced for the occasion.

Was this flood an unprecedented event?

Do we console ourselves by saying, “such is life?”  (c’est la vie? in French?), or should we refuse to accept preventable tragedies as inevitable?

Let us reflect before rushing to blame the heavy downpour for all our ills.

Keralam is not new to floods. We have lived with floods. What has suddenly changed is the realisation of our growing vulnerability. The great flood of 1924, also called the flood of 99 because it occurred in the Malayalam year 1099, wreaked havoc in five districts. It washed away the Kundala Valley Railway and changed the face of Munnar forever. 37 years later, in 1961, another major flood caused widespread damage in the state. The next big flood, comparable to the one of 1924, came in 2018.  Extensively telecast live from all locations, it was the best-documented flood. 

What began as a horror slowly transformed the Malayalee community into a huge collective of rehabilitation. It had the Army, Navy and Air Force participate in high-risk rescue missions. The fishermen of Keralam emerged as the unexpected heroes. The struggle of 2018 remains a symbol of resurgence, both individual and collective, unparalleled in the scale of human kindness.

Floods in Keralam can no longer be called “unprecedented.” Ever since 2018, it has come home regularly. It came in August 2019, August 2020, and also in October 2021.  Landslides, too, have been no different. They have occurred on varying scales every year since 2018. We are once again in August. It has been raining all over, and the land around many inhabited areas has swallowed people and their livestock alive and consigned their possessions to irretrievable dust.

Unprecedented? No, not any more.

C’est la vie? No, not by any chance.

There is absolutely nothing we can do about the rains. It will come of its own accord. However, we can manage its impacts. There is a debate on why landslides happen. Science points towards rapid saturation of the soil and sudden slope failures as reasons. These are accepted as the official reasons for the landslides in Keralam. Though not openly debated, many would easily pin the problem to mindless quarrying and real estate mechanisation. The deep fractures inflicted by quarrying and construction on the geologically sensitive region are known but left unaddressed.

Heavy rains bring enormous volumes of water, but floods occur because the rivers, lakes and dams of Keralam have lost much of their appetite for water. They have lost it to reduced depth and shrinking area. It is not about the waters that come in but about the waters that cannot find a destination.

We know the cause, and we know the effect. We also know the tremendous human costs involved.  Unless and until the core causes are addressed, Keralam is likely to see the fury of nature unleashed every August and soon with every rain. 

Headlines would again scream, “unprecedented.” 

This August too will pass. We will celebrate this Onam also. The philosophical collective shall say, c’est la vie, even as political battles, away from real sweat and tears, rage to grab or defend power. There will also be stories of survival, resurgence, and revival. These will be about individuals who believed, “it doesn't have to be this way” or “ce n’est pas une fatalité” (in French). 

Come to think of it, both these versions, “such is life” and “it doesn't have to be this way”, are the two ways we can handle day-to-day crises and problems in life.  Some of us would refuse to address the core reasons behind a crisis and take refuge in c’est la vie, while a few would strive to change the situation, a quest driven by Ce n’est pas une fatalité.

Yes, both have their places. But don’t let c’est la vie emerge without an earnest attempt at Ce n’est pas une fatalité. 

There is a difference in accepting what cannot be changed and letting go of what can be changed. 

After all, isn’t that the serenity prayer?

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Illustration - Courtesy Ms Rini George