BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY-THE UNSPOKEN TRUTH

Once a friend of mine was critically condemned during his final thesis jury over introducing the road adjoining to the Union Carbide Factory site to be the northern gateway to Bhopal-A beautiful city of lakes and lush greenery. His point : the adjoining road being a state highway(SH-23) connects the city of Begums to rest of the state, Bairasia in particular while it penetrates deep inside the heart of Bhopal.
But the idea was criticized by the jury stating that this would generate negative vibes and will certainly be missing the feel good factor as he advances towards for the ruined site. Adding further he pointed out that this would evoke the memories of the gloomy fateful night in the minds of the people who have been trying hard to forget the pains and suffering they had in the past.
If one Googles Bhopal, the top web search results would for sure be related to the tragedy and similar is the case with the image search. Even recently when Bhopal made it to the headlines it was just because the Union Carbide issue was taken to the next level. If you see the textbooks of history, if Jhansi is there for Rani Lakshmi Bai, Bhopal is there for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
A tragedy that occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant resulted in the death of several thousands of people. It is estimated that 8,000 died within the first weeks and that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases which was the result of leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals from the plant. This left a dark deep scar on the minds of the locals and others.

But this is not the only case of its kind which left people numb and and the chunk of land being called a curse to the society , the farther the better.
On august 6,1945, Hiroshima was bombed killing some 70,000 people instantly and another 70,000 suffered fatal injuries from the atomic radiations. A building named Hiroshima Prefecture industrial promotion hall became the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb as it detonated almost directly over the building dome (some 600 m above the ground). Surprisingly the building was mostly intact and the dome’s reinforcement bars became naked and exposed making it an iconic structure.

Eventually Hiroshima flourished and developed once again and around the dome. After a few controversies and debates the “A-Bomb Dome” as it is called now was registered in the UNESCO World heritage list and the building and the campus around it was developed in a museum named Hiroshima Peace Memorial park.
A similar kind of incident, a recent one, is the ground zero WTC now being rebuilt into Memorial Foundation.

These two examples and numerous others has the same story to tell. Moral of the all the stories? If something has become a part of your life you can’t run away from, it’s better not to run, let it be a peaceful part, a part to which we can pay homage.

My friend, unknowingly, raised the issue, known to everyone but still unspoken and not even a single soul wants to climb the ladder to the solution. If I am asked to choose between (1) running and hiding from an irreversible situation, shutting every mouth who speaks about it or (2) accept the truth and make it a better part of your life, pray I choose the latter .