To Belive or Not To Believe, That is the Question

The recent catastrophe that struck Uttarakhand was devastating for those who experienced it. In fact, even that would be an understatement. There were friends of mine and people that I know, who witnessed the tragedy, while the others were lucky enough to chicken out of their expected-to-be-fun-Dehradun-trips. Two of those people were my neighbourhood aunt and her working daughter.
Being the religious people that they are, they had gone to Uttarakhand as a pilgrimage, of course, not expecting a calamity as bad as this to strike them. While they were there, their family got the news, and got tensed(obviously). Yet, the family couldn’t contact them for four days. It was only after four days that some relief camp providers safely dropped them off to their house, the one in front of mine.
Undoubtedly, we are close to their family, and so, my mum, couldn’t resist the urge to talk to them about what all they had to go through. She was also, of course, one of those who worried about them when she got the news of the floods. Yet, more baffling than their stories of living without food and water for four days and surviving the scrutinizing eyes of the locals there, were stories of people who survived, only because they BELIEVED in GOD and PRAYED.
Don’t get me wrong. Even I am not a believer and do not blindly follow religious customs and superstitions, but, that’s what they told us. Even now as I write this article, I can’t help but question the truth and conviction of the stories…
While there were many such stories, there were two that left me baffled.
In one of them, one of their fellow pilgrims was a Big Worshipper of Lord Shiva, and used to chant in the temple everyday, between 6-7. If it was luck, or coincidence, or his prayers, I fail to comprehend, but the rains used to stop exactly for that hour (between 6-7), everyday. I do not know if there could be any meteorological or scientific reason for it, and if there is, I would most certainly like to know.
The other incident, involved a tourist family that had the father as a great believer and worshipper, again. They were stuck in the hotel room with all doors and windows jammed, and water gushing in. They luckily spotted a ventilator high above one of the walls and got through it, outside. When the father looked back at the ventilator once he was out, it had a grill, which obviously wasn’t there a while back, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to move out. Yet, we can convincingly argue, that he might have looked at some other ventilator amidst the chaos and all. What we can’t answer is the mysterious way in which his lost son (merely 11 years old) was found after a day, beneath a rock. He apparently couldn’t recall how he got there because he FELL ASLEEP!!

But, if it was really GOD, or the power of the prayers, that saved them, then there were many others who prayed as well? After all, in the times of crisis, even the toughest of the persons soften down and resort to all measures to save their beloved’s lives. And why that specific hour between 6-7? There were people praying the whole day! People NEEDED god the whole day! We can go on and come up with a list of questions that are unanswered
It is the outlook/perception that makes us see the incidents from various angles, each of us interpreting it in a different way and each of us coming up with a different explanation.

It is merely a question of believing or not.