THE BUSINESS OF PROVIDING RELIEF...FOOD FOR ONE... -------------------------------- It is unamusing if not downright incorrect to drop food on hungry people swamped by deep water, only to see the food; most of it anyway; bouncing off slanted tin roofs into the water...It would sink like a stone for one, being just a flimsy cellophane pack held tight with a rubber band...For another, how do you drop water in even flimsier plastic bottles? They would split on impact for sure...Also, while alu-puri and achar is convenient for mass production, it has a short shelf life and is not every one preferred food...provided it survives impact... While one is not suggesting that exotic pulao needs to be dropped and wazwan, as that is just khayali pulao, surely some thought needs to be given to food that the hungry masses would love to eat...Something that can better survive impact, is light weight and exactly what the Kashmiri awaam would prefer... There is NO village or hamlet in Kashmir, no street that does not have its baker...Kashmiris thrive on bread and have dozens of Bakarkhani (bread) preperations ranging from pre breakfast to breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, as snacks...Tandoor or owen made, these are light weight, last long, improve morale then and there and are far better suited than other primarily North Indian preperations...Srinagar and its environs must have thousands of bakers and surely a few are still at work...!!! Also, if DROP is a failure, either ensure water proof packing...(this is 2014, remember?) or lower supplies in a contrived net or basket...Get water in 10 litre jars, bread in kilo packings (it looks like an abbreviated nan), get other long lasting stuff that is part of the Kashmiri palate and then send it by the method suggested, by food shikaras full of bread, milk, medicine, water, veggies, gas cylinders... Be generous. These are OUR people and need care and nurture...There are thousands of hospitals, hotels, bakers, others who can be socially made accountable to provide all this stuff, even pay for shikara hire... Lets get professional and organised and stop fooling around... When a Mother can feed her baby with milk feed, Cerelac or Glaxo, when a menstruating kid can access sanitary pads, all can drink clean water and kids chew on donated chocolates, eat vegetables or take on a stock of MRE...the famous DRDO MEALS READY TO EAT BY SIMPLY ADDING WATER... you would make the marooned feel you care... What about donating hand operated battery chargers...Cell phone batteries? Takeing satellite phones along for the relieved to make calls? India is today next to Japan in financial clout but still thinks primitively... THIS is what NDMA, NDRF, INTEZAMIA should have done...may be there is a lesson here for the IAF and ARMY too...Upgrade what you provide and do it right...These are our people even if a few abuse us...Let that be. Focus on the women, children, old people, the sick...Sent Shikara Doctors, Nurses...Show that you care... I am suggesting measures that were implemented during the snow tsunami except that water proofing wasnt relevant then...Extreme cold was...Has been done...Can be done...I could then call the shots and did and others can do it now and far better...
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 07:11:45 +0000
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