Tales of Ramayana that I heard during my childhood always culminated in Lanka with the battle between Lord Rama and Ravana. The storyteller would help me visualise the graphic details. Now we have social media and internet to keep updating us. A relative or a friend unwittingly on the site and alive to tell the tale may update his near and dear ones, but only if his cellphone network has not been jammed.
In my family, a close relative had visited Nepal and Leh on two separate occasions. Nothing extraordinary one may think. But the oddity was that soon after her family’s return from those places, force majeure played its role in wrecking devastation on an unbridled scale through earthquakes and landslides. We heaved a sigh of relief on both occasions that they were back safe by then, although our minds were disturbed by the fact that hundreds of lives were lost.
Eerie but true that on Easter Sunday, the same relative had a flight to Sri Lanka. The news about the terror attacks came pouring in, but the tour operator declared courageously that come what may he would conduct the tour to the devastated place and no refund would be given. Luck was on my relative’s side as emergency was declared and the tour manager had to eat his words. My daughter and her spouse had been planning a trip to Lanka’s pristine locales but due to some reason, the plan got shelved each time. Now it may be locked securely for some time.
I had the good fortune to have visited the famous Notre Dame in 2013 when Paris was celebrating its 850th anniversary. My family and I were spellbound by the vast space, aura and the architecture. A golden-coloured medallion made specially for the occasion was the cherished memento that I brought back home. Along with this, we happened to visit the nearby iconic book shop, Shakespeare and Company. I pampered myself with the purchase of a Collector’s Library edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the classic by Victor Hugo. It is saddening that the cathedral sustained huge damage in the April 15 fire. On yet another occasion my daughter and I visited the Yosemite National Park in California and took quite a few harmless selfies. So it was spooky to recently read about a young Indian couple who lost their precious lives taking a selfie at the very place. It is curtains down on the tale of coincidences, for now.
Email: sandhya.vasudev@gmail.com