As reporters we cover many accidents. That coverage is not only a part of the job but it is also important to cover it with seriousness. If you are a serious journalist then seriousness comes automatically.
In my 15-year job, I covered many accidents, big and small, but today, even after four years, I do not forget the eyes of the victims and their families in four accidents. I did the first Dabwali fire cover as an intern. In which dozens of small children and their mothers were burnt to death in a fire at an annual school function.
Even today, Dabwali has not forgotten this fire. Dabwali had not slept for many years after the accident, women and children used to stay awake all night in fear and fear. Families whose children or mothers were burnt to ashes were stoned. The situation was that counseling centers had to be opened at various places in the city. Whether someone died in a house or not, weeds were in every house.
Impact Of The Accident
This accident made the entire Dabwali a family. Could not understand how to forget the storm that had brought life into the memory of that dreadful day. What to do if that scene does not come in your dream. A corpse is a corpse, but watching burnt corpses… I myself was scared for many months. I could not sleep We used to miss the faces of weeping mothers.
The second accident was the Khanna railway accident. In which there were corpses and their pieces scattered like pellets here and there. The nearby villagers helped a lot. But desperate people looking for their loved ones, troubled people, people identifying their dead bodies, I cannot forget in life.
Just a year after the third Gujarat earthquake, I went to Gujarat for a month to take stock of the relief work. It was seen that after one year of the earthquake, the eyes of the people were moist, weeping from jar to jar. There was a woman among them, who was mentally insane after losing her 15-year-old son in an earthquake.
The woman would sit at the door, always saying, “He will come, he will come,” she would take a comb in her hand and say, “I have to comb her.” She looked at me and smiled. Tells that “He is coming, just wait.” Will just come. ”
The whole family of the woman standing behind me was crying but that mother was laughing. Was happy that the son was just about to come, had gone to get yogurt from home, would have come. I never forget that mother.
The fourth incident was an explosion in the Mohali Ranbaxy factory, in which many youth were burnt. Coming home from office at night, there was such a loud explosion that nothing was understood. It was felt that a natural disaster would be coming. There was chaos in Chandigarh as to what the explosion was.
Everyone was scared, there was a strange explosion, people could not understand, then it was found out that there was a chemical explosion in Ranbaxy’s factory. I used to watch Health Beat in those days. I got a call from the office to reach PGI immediately and give updates on the phone.
I reached PGI. Scooter parked in parking lot. As soon as it reached the Emergency, there was a commotion, crying and shouting… there were burnt people being brought inside on the stretcher. The family were going to see each other to see if there was a son, not my son-in-law, or not my brother.
In PGI Emergency it is always very difficult to get inside even on normal days. There is a vigil on the gate. But reporters also have their own jugaad. I went inside ripping the crowd. Inside the Emergency, people were groaning everywhere with white powder like white powder pasted on their bodies.
I put a round and came out for a while in panic. Then went inside again, took the latest figures, saw some situation, then came out. Whenever it came out from inside, a crowd of the crowd would come towards me, to get information about their condition.
There were also journalists of other newspapers. I was standing alone for a while talking to the office on the phone in a corner. A very old Sardar Ji came to me. With folded hands, weeping and saying, “Biba ji my son was also on duty, tell me somehow if he is also inside, then what is his condition.” Before that I was looking at that elderly man Like I was praying for a guard to go inside, sometimes I would see the list hanging on the wall, sometimes I would try to go inside. Well, he told me his son’s name. I went back in again, found out but no youngster of that name was found in Emergency.
I came out and gave comfort to those Sardarji that there is no one inside this name, it means that your son is alright. He asked sure, I said sure When it was going to be morning after late night, the second PGI reporter came on duty and I went home. When I saw the morning newspaper, I found that the picture of those Sardar ji crying and crying was placed on the list of the relatives of the dead people in the blast. My heart sat down, BP started getting low, breath was not coming.
The houses where the women die in the accident are roused from the houses, the houses where the men die are extinguished by the stove and the light of the house, the children whose children die carry the burden of the corpse of the child all their lives. , That mother or father also dies in sorrow quickly, the number of corpses in the accident, the pile of corpses bothers any reporter. It bothers That moist, wet eyes, that bent shoulders, that sore throat is not easily forgotten.
The damage caused in the Gujarat earthquake was man-made because big buildings, apartments were uprooted and piled up like cards when the earthquake struck. Mansi apartments
It was probably what was turned into rubble in a few seconds.
When the accidents are man-made, at least the media’s anger on the administration and governments should be erupted, there should be questions, in such a situation, the victim does not dare to put the administration or government in the dock, this is the work of the media.
In such a situation, if an uneducated, insensitive journalist writes that the Banaras accident happened due to the sum of planets or constellations, then that journalist does not have the right to work in the media. But here the cannabis is lying in the well, what will anyone do when the management and editorial of the newspaper is insensitive. It is said for them that the bodies of their loved ones are very cumbersome, some should be sensitive.