As usual I was, lying on my bed, taking a rest, with a smart phone in my hand after a day’s of work. Suddenly friends of mine started to declare their safety status. Puzzled as I was, I was certain that something terrible had happened in eight hour’s durations.

I quickly visited one of the popular pages of Nepal to know what had transpired. The surprise turned into dismay which ultimately resulted in a grief. After the initial shock, my head began to race for many of my friends who studied in Bangladesh.

When last I checked, they were participating in their final papers. I frantically tried to reach them via messages but to no avail. And God be praised, they were safe for their examinations hadn’t yet finished. This may be the only time when both parents and children were happy to be having exams. With time, more news came about. One of my cousins too was on that flight and by almighty’s grace was alive and hospitalized.

The evening news brought more detail about how it had happened. Pages on social media were publishing provocative and false news, all for a bit more likes, shares and subscribers. As time passed by, thoughts and prayers started to trickle down to the deceased and bereaved family members. I’m sure, after some time government is going to provide financial relief to everybody involved and form a committee to find out what went wrong with solutions to prevent as well as mitigate this tragic incident. Just like in the past, the findings will only gather dust.

It is too soon to draw conclusion about what went wrong. The unpreparedness of the TIA along with the flouting of civic duty definitely aggravated an already tragic situation. The rescue staffs were not commanding their station as they were supposed to do and were not ready for the situation. We as citizen, were too busy going on our way to give way to the fire brigades and ambulances on route to the rescue. If every such emergency vehicle could be preceded by a VIP, I’m sure we the people would gladly make way for them. Instead of giving way to the necessary personnel, we were quite busy and joyous to be onlookers, waiting to get a snap, a selfie and post it online to appease our social base; feel relevant.

What we need now isn’t just thoughts and prayers but concrete actions aimed at mitigating and preventing future tragedies. Either it be improving ground response time and equipping ground crew with equipment necessary or be it adhering to the civic sense of righteousness, we must take a step in that direction.

Brain drain and the allure of foreign land is going to be costlier for us and we will have to face consequences. We must develop necessary infrastructure in the form of universities, colleges and run them based on efficiency. Parents who were waiting to receive their children in white apron will now have to give farewell to them in a white cloth. This situation should improve.