Mallika Chopra wrote:

"Its not even headline news on the Times of India website a day later... Is life just so temporal that a country moves on from such a senseless tragedy so fast?"

Its still the top story and on the front page of most network news channels in India. Try CNN-IBN
or NDTV. Or any other Newspaper Editorials like The Hindu or the Indian Express.

Times of India is an anomaly.

Basically, your criticism is of the coverage of the tragedy in the online edition of The Times of India - a website that is very popular in the US with the Indian Americans - and not on the actual state of media coverage of the incident in India.

There are so many terrible accidents and attacks that have and are happening in India in the past week. Serial bomb blasts in Ahmadabad and Bangalore, 25 bombs defused in Surat, A train on fire killing over 30, another bomb in Kolkata, Temple Stampede caused by rumors of landslide, etc etc. There is a LOT of coverage in India on all these incidents.

Anyway, a country like India is very different than America, it never stops to function.

People go to work the very next day, to their places of work located right next to a major bomb blast sites.

The nine day Temple pilgrimage after the stampede that killed 150 is already back on course starting Monday.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/naina-devi-stampede-death-toll-reaches-146-yatra-resumes/70373-3.html

"And, the reality of a stampede, while utterly tragic to me sitting here in LA, seems to be another news story in India. Its not even headline news on the Times of India website a day later... Is life just so temporal that a country moves on from such a senseless tragedy so fast?

This should probably reassure Mallika to some extent. I just checked, the Temple Stampede story is back (if they did take it off for a while) as a top story at their website.

Devotees back in Naina Devi hours after stampede

4 Aug 2008, 1000 hrs IST , IANS

"A day after a stampede claimed 146 lives at Naina Devi temple in Himachal, religious fervour was back with hundreds of devotees lining up to pay obeisance."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Devotees back in Naina Devi hours after stampede

4 Aug 2008, 1000 hrs IST , IANS

A day after a stampede claimed 146 lives at Naina Devi temple in Himachal, religious fervour was back with hundreds of devotees lining up to pay obeisance.

Aloha Mallika and Everyone

We are time travelers, appearing and disappearing. Love the one, ones, you are with. love patty

"And, the reality of a stampede, while utterly tragic to me sitting here in LA, seems to be another news story in India. Its not even headline news on the Times of India website a day later... Is life just so temporal that a country moves on from such a senseless tragedy so fast?"

Seems like some major whining from Mallika.

Get a grip. The American and world media is covering it too. It on the front pages of CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NY Times for instance.

Yes it is "another" story in India. Only that you don't are not aware of how the story is being covered in Indian media, both print and televison and the blogs, and how the country "feels" about the tragedy, while you pass your judgment of an entitre country and its media blogging from LA.

Aloha Mallika and Everyone

I think in this country the US, media is mass weapons of distractions. I no longer watch TV. Watching the news is like a mini meditation of fear or a commercial a mini meditation of not being satisfied. A Course in Miracles teaches us we are never upset for the reason we think we are. And we live in a self correcting universe. The only reason I share this, is one of the links, the paper said that it was a rumor that there was a landslide that began the panic. It is important for myself to go deep to remember we are a traumatized species that project our fear of cataclysm catastrophes. And of course that changes in remembering the only thing that changes is change) It is finding the truth in the rumor that allows. We are fluid like the river that can never be stepped in the same place. May all be with a peace that rises that knows no catastrophe. love patty

Mallika,
The value of human life in the sub-continent has no or very little value. Except the immediate family of the deceased, in most cases no one cares what happens to them , least of all the government.
With large scale deaths practically every other day, even the media like others has too become desensitized and at best pays lip service

Dear Mallika,

Its sad but life seems to move on for everybody here. The worst is that we never learn from our experiences...I wouldn't be surprised if similar incident occurs at some other pilgrimage or public gathering. Its gross to say this..but everybody seems to take some mileage out of the disaster, be it politicians,commerce,media etc. I think every incident such as this should be treated with sensitivity,care for the people left behind,learn from it,and BIG NO to opportunists.

Hi all.
Well we all are whining at ourselves and will possibly keep doing it for ever.

The trouble is that we all sit in our comfortable dwellings and keep commenting on whatever happens.

In the newly discovered capitalism in India, even the media no longer are doing what they, generally, are believed to be doing. They too are running shops and want to make money. And I don't blame them.

Politicians who are helping to create billionaires also want their share from it.

Who cares about ordinary people!
And that includes us.

The solution?
None for now...Will need a big shock from "somewhere" to wake up.

Lets pray until then or until we too appear on the fifth page.

Namastay.