Just when we were barely coming to grips with the pandemic crisis, a cyclonic storm by the name of Nisarga decided to worsen the epidemic of fear among the Mumbai Residents.
Mumbai experienced its serious cyclone landfall on 3rd June. Though we didn’t possibly know how powerful the effects would be, the Maharashtra State assigned red alert in Mumbai and its surrounding coastal areas to mitigate any loss. The State Government went into an emergency huddle to prepare for the possible aftermath. The NDRF (disaster relief teams) were kept on stand-by in and around Mumbai to tackle all eventuality. The movement of people around the coastline was prohibited. Thousands of residents were evacuated to safer structures. The Central Railways rescheduled, diverted, and regulated some trains, Airlines cancelled their Mumbai operations. All the hospitals were alerted, the Police force was stationed across the high alerted areas to control any possible commotion.
Though we were experiencing the lockdown, Section 144 was introduced in Mumbai to strictly urge people to stay in their homes for their safety. Other guidelines were circulated among the residents on how to further mitigate the loss of life and protect personal assets and belongings.
Now that the storm has passed and everyone’s out of danger, there’s a question that needs to be pondered over and dealt with. When the storm wasn’t even near, why did we took such precautionary measures beforehand even though we had no idea of its severity? Were we over-analyzing the outcome of it all? Was our overreaction of resource deployment and emergency protocols across the city, nothing but a mere wastage of resources and energy? Was it all for nothing?
Or was it a set of carefully curated courses of action to minimize the greater future loss, otherwise popularly known as Contingency Planning?
Sure, a huge amount of resources, particularly monetary and human efforts, were spent on over something that was yet to happen, but it was still worth the efforts, worth every single money and resource. Reason? The precious existence of Human Life.
Human life just cannot be monetized.
Just imagine, if the Government didn’t devise any contingency plans, wouldn’t ‘Nisarga’ be the case of a greater loss of life and human possessions? Something which would be more ferocious, more liable than the initially planned investment. Nothing, and I mean, nothing is more valuable than Human Life.
The above-said analogy can be applied in all walks of life; when one gets married, enjoys a pay raise, one who has more responsibilities or has to acquire more liabilities. The person becomes more valuable to their family, to their business, factory workers, and to the world.
There is so much risk going on around you. You need to ensure and insure big, keeping in mind, the potential loss faced along the way. The cost is just peanuts compared to the LOVE of the family & Growth of Business.