Selective Amnesia

Get offa my land Tsunami

I’m alright, thank you, you kindly 2 people, for asking. I was nowhere near the beach, and no one I know were too. In fact, truth be told, I was kinda excited about the Tsunami.

Which, I realise, is a little stupid and heartless to confess.
But therein lies the point of this post.

Before the scale of the devastation was known, and before all the news channel started descending onto Madras, I was discussing with a friend of mine about the Tsunami. With us was another friend, a guy from Kerala. Friend #1 suddenly turns to Friend #2 and says, not without a trace of pride, “You see, Tamil Nadu is the most affected”.
My first reaction was to talk him some sense, before I realised I was thinking of the same thing.

For those not personally affected by the calamity, there is a macabre sense of pride in knowing that your state or city has been affected. I am not drawing a conclusion just based on this incident. This has happened quite often in the past, and a few of my friends confess to the same.

So, what are we? Heartless folks, or just plain indifferent?