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Journalism of Courage
In Jammu’s Raghunath temple, the sea god now tops the devotional charts. In Mumbai, anti-corruption specialist T S Bhal is taking two weeks off to go to Nagapattinam. In Delhi, a Rs 10,000 diamond was auctioned for Rs 1.35 lakh. In Jalandhar, 2.5 lakh quintals of potatoes are headed south.
And if Virender Sehwag gave up the bat that hit an electric 309 against Pakistan last March, Kolkata’s Chinmoyee Roy, 82, handed in the Rs 2,001 she was going to spend on her late husband’s annual shradh ceremony.
Across the country, India’s giving like never before. Harvard alumni, Tihar inmates, Tata’s top brass. The contributions streaming in from street-children, seniors, former militants, companies and residents’ associations are adding up to unprecedented numbers.
At last count, by Saturday evening, the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund had logged Rs 403 crore—that’s already near the Rs 410 crore that took one year to collect after the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.
A just-married couple sent Rs 17,000. They were making reservations for their honeymoon, they wrote, when the tsunami struck. So they cancelled the trip, and handed in a cheque instead.
PMO officials say they got the maximum hits on their online donation site on New Year’s Eve as a rush of people decided to skip the bash and donate the money instead. Contributions are also pouring into relief funds set up by media organisations all over India from viewers and readers.
In fact, this time round, the web has been a force multiplier. Nearly every popular site and blog in India has a tsunami relief link on its site.
‘‘Through the web, the awareness is instant and in real time, not filtered through, which is very powerful and compelling. It creates empathy and a desire to help,’’ said Dina Mehta, co-founder of tsunamihelp.blogspot.com, a web log that got a million hits in eight days.
On the ground, there’s no shortage of innovative reactions.
‘‘Lord Rama had to calm the sea god too. We are praying to pacify Varun devta,’’ said Darshan Kumar, a priest at the Raghunath temple in Jammu. These days it’s normal to see at least 200 people, including pilgrims from Vaishnodevi, at the usually deserted morning prayer.
The Potato Growers’ Association of Jalandhar has pledged 2.5 lakh quintals of the humble spud and DuPont India’s list of donations includes 33,000 Tyvek Barrierman coveralls, 30,000 Sontara masks and 80,000 Solae energy bars. R Kugham, a ragpicker in Jalandhar, has decided to give Rs 10 out of the Rs 50 he makes everyday. And in Tihar, inmates collected Rs 10 lakh.
A group of 100 men, most of them former militants of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), decided they would do their bit by donating blood. ‘‘Who can understand the pain and agony better than us?’’ said Noor Mohammad Kalwal, a former militant who spent more than a decade behind bars.
Celebrities have got into the act too. Zakir Hussain collected Rs 12 lakh from an all-night concert in Mumbai with 14 musicians including Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Jasraj, Toufiq Qureshi and Kishori Amonkar. ‘‘I sent a note to all the artistes and they confirmed immediately,’’ said Hussain.
Bollywood names like Raveena Tandon, Shah Rukh Khan, Boman Irani and Bipasha Basu will egg you to donate funds via phone, SMS or the internet in a seven-hour telethon on January 26, starting noon on Sony Entertainment.
They will perform, answer phones and pledge stunts if a certain amount is raised by a given time. ‘‘It could be anything, like Tendulkar promising to sing,’’ says Ingrid Srinath, CEO of organiser CRY. The target? Rs 2.5 crore, half of which will be donated to tsunami relief.
Sourav Ganguly plans to raise Rs 50 lakh from an auction at the end of the month. Going under the hammer will be memorabilia from Ganguly, Tendulkar, Muthaiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shane Warne.
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• NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy League is looking for volunteers from retired naval personnel, ex-servicemen and others with sea-going experience to assist locally in storm warning and rescue operations. Volunteers may write to The Indian Navy League, D427, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024, or to vmohindra@eth.net.  You have exhausted your
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Kapil Dev fan Vinod Kumar bought the all rounder’s bat at one such auction for Rs 1.11 lakh. ‘‘I already have two bats and a ball signed by him. I don’t want this one, but this was the minimum I could do to help,’’ said the Delhi-based businessman.
Many folks across the country have just packed their bags and headed to Ground Zero. Delhi transport department’s joint commissioner P R Meena, who was posted on the Andaman and Nicobar islands after he joined the civil services in the ’80s, is currently supervising relief operations in Car Nicobar.
Other people who are already in the disaster-struck areas include Shamim Akhtar, superintendent of Tihar jail, the Tata Relief Committee (a 55-member team), Samir Modi, CEO of ModiCare Foundation and 24 doctors and paramedics from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
Baba Mohan Dass, who runs an ashram in Jalandhar, set out for Chennai two days after the tragedy with Rs 10 lakh and a band of followers. ‘‘It’s the least I can do… every drop counts,’’ he said.
And don’t forget the children. They have been at the forefront of collection efforts. Students of Loreto School in Kolkata hit the roads to polish shoes and raise funds. At the Blind People’s Association in Ahmedabad, 263 students skipped lunch and donated Rs 8,000 thus saved.
One of the smallest donations to the PMO—Rs 100—came from a seven-year-old who emptied her piggy-bank.
