Lost in Stampede - whom to blame?

The sight of a wailing father near his son graveard is very heart wrenching. Nobody wants their kids to met with a tragic end. But this has happened in Bangalore few days ago. Out to celebrate the victory March of their cricketing club, a 21 years young lad lost his life. There were many people who lost their lives in the stampede occurred outside the cricket stadium. The crowd gathered there to celebrate their club winning the recently concluded IPL title. They were their to watch their teams victory, to support their favourite player. But unfortunately the craziness, the overcrowdness, created havoc and chaos resulted in stampede taking many lives. Many were the youth who wanted to get inside the stadium to be part of the celebration. Later all focus shifted towards the organiser and government for the mayhem.

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Every times there is a stampede, the general public start to blame the government, the organisers or the authorities, which may or may not be the part of the problem. In all the ruckus, we miss the individual responsibility towards their own safety.

I have never seen any stampede, where people were overcrowding over a reason which could not be avoided. Be it a temple courtyard, or Maha kumbh or the recent bangalore stadium for a sports event. Not being able to reach a place, where there is lot if rush is better than taking the risk of life or major accident. When we will understand, that one event does not define our life. Our life is defined by meaningful things that can be done in lifetime. But people gets crazy over following sports and the player.

The recent bangalore case is one of the many which resulted in unforseen death. I remember, an instance from childhood, when I forced my Dad to take us for a movie theatre for a movie. We were new at Delhi in that time and unaware of the crowding at the theatre. When we reached there it was overcrowded like hell. Eaelier Theatre was not like the recent multiplexes with comfortable sitting and cafe area. It was an old movie theatre, People from all walk of life were standing in the staircase to get inside the theatre. My Dad seeing the situation so bad, pulled us from the crowd. He wanted our safety and waited for few minutes before the rush settled in. It does not take much, just a little patience that allow us to enjoy movie. If he didn't had pulled us out of the crowd we might get suffocated, in middle of so many people.

Likewise, following a sport is good, but getting so crazy over players is not God. It is madness of next level. In my personal opinion, if you are seriously following someone and consider them as an idol, then try to be like him, rather than just being a normal fan follower. Cricket in India is a religion, with maximum players following it with heart. They make the players their idol and wanted to take glimpse of them. On the other, hand these cricketing players have nothing to do with their fan. They play cricket, earn handsome income , get their reward and just walk away easily name and fame leaving behind their disheartened fan behind. Same thing happened, in the Bangalore stampede, people were gathered to watch their players, but what they did, they simply enjoy the celebration and then left as nothing happened.

Outside the stadium, people died, many injured and these players have nothing to bother about. They are more focus on ther achievement and fame. It is the poor people who suffer. This is why I consider the individual responsibility is must before going around into such gathering or in crowd. They risk their life and health, just to take a glimpse and in process may lose everything. Rather than getting mad, just follow the passion to be like one of them.

In good faith - Peace!!