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Touchstones: Nothing is permanent

Reach out with love to those who have to start over, whether an immigrant from a village to your city or a lost soul
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A rescue team searches the remains of a house that got burnt in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in LA, California. Photo: Reuters
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From the time I wrote my last column, a mere fortnight ago, my world has turned upside down. We were happily on a vacation with our children, some cousins and friends in Rajasthan. Among them was our son, his wife and daughter, who live in Los Angeles. They are architects and have worked hard to reach a level of comfort after 25 years there. About a year or so ago, they moved to the famous Pacific Palisades area, so that their daughter could attend one of the city’s best-known state schools. Their neighbours were well-known film and TV stars, including some names that one reads about only in gossip columns, such as Paris Hilton.

When they flew to India two weeks ago, little did they realise that this beautiful life was about to literally go up in flames. For those who have been following the inferno raging for over a week in California, Palisades is where it started and remains uncontrolled despite the Herculean efforts and resources the state has pumped into it. As we came out of the numbed state after they checked their messages from the Fire Department to evacuate and friends there anxiously asking where they were, we were unable to even comprehend the enormity of the apocalypse that was waiting to unfold.

They lost not just their beautiful home with everything in it but the entire neighbourhood, the school as well. All that they had acquired in 25 years — valuable books, drawings and photos, to say nothing of the furniture, carpets, clothes and jewellery — was reduced to a pile of ashes in the blink of an eye. All we could say to comfort them was that thank god they were with the people who love them the most in the world, and were spared the trauma of seeing their life literally reduced to ashes. Also, that their beloved dog was safe with a sitter who was looking after it while they were away.

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I am confident that being professional architects, rebuilding homes has taught them some valuable lessons. They are young, energetic and after the first few months, will have a good life. I am also deeply touched at how so many friends they have there immediately swung into action: someone came to pick them up from the airport, another left them a car to use until they get their insurance claims sorted. Another opened his house and insisted they stay until they recovered from jet lag, while another who studied with my son in UCLA has offered them a new flat he’s built and not put on the market. What can all this be but the result of good karma? With the love and comfort we were able to provide and such remarkable friends there, they have a bank of goodwill that many others may not have.

In these deracinated times, many have given up their faith but it is such apocalyptic events that nudge us to acknowledge that an unseen power moves our world. Those who believe that Nature can be tamed are often unaware that Nature can hit back so viciously that whole civilisations can be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Recall how the Indus Valley ended or what the tsunami a few years ago did to the whole of South Asia. An astrologer friend of mine used to say that Saturn (our Shani) is not just a malefic planet, but the guru of the celestial world. It tests your endurance to the limit but leaves after teaching you valuable life lessons. In this case, it has taught us all that life is the most precious gift of all; there is no greater love than that of family and friends. Also, that no earthly goods are permanent and worth shedding tears over, that one must stay grounded and take each day as it comes.

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Those who remember the trauma of Partition will understand that life can be built again: that memories of the past will never go but the only way to survive a life-altering experience is to look ahead. This is the message Krishna left for us in the Bhagwadagita and this is what has helped our family to cope. Significantly, this happened on the eve of the Maha Kumbh and close to a rare astronomical event that will take place on January 25, when all the planets will be in alignment with the moon. Rationalists may laugh at these coincidences but I am compelled to remember these cosmic signals as Trump takes over in the US, the Israel-Hamas war is finally close to a ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine will see a new alignment of support. The UK, large swathes of Europe, including Scandinavia, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Bangladesh in our own neighbourhood have dealt with seismic political shifts recently. All this cannot be just a coincidence — it is a warning to the world that nothing is permanent, and while nations change governments, there are more changes that may impact not just individual lives but all human life.

On that sombre note, I leave you with the earnest request to think of those who have suffered traumas that are beyond human control. Reach out with love to those who have to start over: whether an immigrant from a village to your city or a lost soul. Instead of chasing possessions, gather good deeds and goodwill.

— The writer is a social commentator

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