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Audience surfs channel of grief
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MUZAMIL JALEEL & MELVIN THOMAS
BHUJ/SURAT,
FEBRUARY 11: In Teendarvaza, people took out their television
sets and set them ablaze on the road to prevent recurrence
of earth quakes. Around 24 sets had already been destroyed.
Two moulvis of the area had asked the people to destroy their
TV sets which are spreading obscenity and immorality in the
society and thus attracting God's wrath.
Moulvi
Imtiyaz and Mufti Rouf had addressed a prayer gathering in
Khajori Vali masjid where they had asked the people to desist
from ``all immoral activities if they wanted the quakes to
stop.''
Altaf
Mohammad Hussain Mansoori, a cloth merchant of Dalgadwad,
who had attended the prayer meeting said that the muftis asked
the people to ``immediately destroy these toys of Shaitan
(devil)''. Mansoori had taken out his brand-new television
set to the road and destroyed it immediately after he returned
from the mosque. ``Everybody is scared after the devastation
of January 26. The Almighty showed a glimpse of his wrath.
We saw tall highrises and concrete buildings crumble like
a house of cards,'' he said. ``Who wants it to recur? It is
better to have no television and live.''
In Ahmedabad
and Surat too, scores of Muslim families destroyed television
sets on Saturday night. Maulana Syed Khalil Ahmed Randeri
in Surat had blamed television programmes at a religious congregation
held in the Rani Talav area. ``This (the earthquake) clearly
indicates Allah's anger on humankind. Television is the epicentre
of all evil,'' he had said.
Soon,
people in the Chowk Bazar, Saudagarwad, Rander, and Patni
Colony areas began to destroy television sets. Some threw
them out on the street. Some smashed them with rods at street
corners. Some put them on fire.
Gaffar
Noormohammed Chandiwala, a resident of Saudagarhwad, had purchased
a TV set only a few days ago. ``I went home and broke my TV
set. My children used to watch Hindi movies and serials, and
I think this was creating an evil impression in their minds.
It was necessary to destroy the TV,'' he said.
Yunus
Chakkiwala, president of the Surat Halai Memon Jamat and a
resident of Chowk Bazaar, said he did not have a TV set but
he motivated more than 10 people to destroy their TV sets.
The Maulana
told The Indian Express that he did not provoke people into
doing what they did. ``They have not acted on my instruction;
they have only acted according to what Islam teaches. And
this will happen across the country, and abroad,'' he said.
Scared
and shaken, the traumatised people of the earthquake-hit areas
are taking refuge in religion for solace. Temples and mosques
have hardly seen so many visitors before but now the fear
of recurrence of the quake had turned the population superstitious.
First a wave of scare had gripped the entire area after an
astrologer had made a forecast that another quake was to strike
on February 3. And people abandoned even those houses, which
had not even developed cracks in the earlier quake in fear.
``Everybody is scared. Nobody wants to take any chances. If
the forecast proves right, what then?'' said Suresh Shah,
a bank manager. ``I understand it is superstition. But if
you don't even believe in it, the woman-folk of the family
force you to do so,'' he said.
In fact,
in the temporary shelters and tents pitched for the victims
of the quake across Gujarat, the chanting of Bhajans and Kirtans
and conduct of special prayers has become a regular feature.
And in the Muslim areas, people keep on reading verses from
the Quran loudly. ``It is the only way to recover from such
a tragedy. We accept it as God's will. We believe that it
had to happen and the only way to get out of this shock is
to seek God's help only,'' said Nurmohmad Yousuf, a Muslim
priest in Bhuj.
The Buchasanvasi
Aksar Purshotam Swaminarayan Sanstha, which has sent around
500 sadhus and volunteers to Bhuj for relief work, also conducted
a special Vishnu yagna. ``There were hundreds of those who
lost their family members in the quake. Many of them had their
relatives still buried beneath the rubble. This prayer was
conducted so that they get some shanti,'' said Brami Munni
Swami of the BAPS relief camp at the Swaminarayan temple in
Bhuj.
The population
of the Jains in Bhuj is around 6,000 and a majority of them
have moved to pilgrim centres -- the Bohotar Jenaleya (72
Temples) near Mandvi. ``We have a roof on our head here. And
the community leaders have made all the arrangements, from
food to medical care,'' said Shantibhai Morabia, who lost
his three relatives and house in the quake. ``And we also
spend our time in prayers seeking forgiveness for our sins.''
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