அபிநந்தனை வரவேற்க மேளதாளங்களோடு காத்திருக்கும் மக்கள்!

சண்டிகர்: இந்திய விமானப்படை வீரரான அபிநந்தன் வர்த்தமானை பாகிஸ்தான் இன்று விடுதலை செய்யவுள்ள நிலையில் அவரை வரவேற்கும் விதமாக வாகா எல்லையில் மக்கள் மேளதாளங்களுடன் காத்துக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றனர்.

காத்திருக்கும் பொதுமக்கள்

Published : Mar 1, 2019, 1:00 PM IST

புல்வாமா தாக்குதலுக்கு இந்திய பாதுகாப்புப் படை பதிலடி கொடுத்ததையடுத்து, இந்தியா பாதுகாப்புப் படையினரின் வசிப்பிடத்தைக் குண்டு வீசி அழிக்க பாகிஸ்தான் போர் விமானங்கள் முற்பட்டன. பாக். பதில் தாக்குதல் நடத்தக்கூடும் என்பதை முன்னரே கணித்த இந்தியா, பாகிஸ்தானின் போர் விமானங்களை எல்லையிலேயே விரட்டியடித்தன. இதில் ஆகாய மார்க்கமாக ஏவும் ஏவுகணையை சுமந்து வந்த பாகிஸ்தானின் எப்.16 விமானத்தை, மிக் 21 விமானத்தில் இருந்து தமிழக வீரர் அபிநந்தன் சுட்டு வீழ்த்தினார். அப்போது, பாகிஸ்தான் விமானம் நடத்திய எதிர் தாக்குதலில் அபிநந்தனின் விமானமும் சேதம் அடைந்ததால் பாராசூட் மூலம் பாகிஸ்தான் ஆக்கிரமிப்பு காஷ்மீர் பகுதியில் தரையிறங்கிய அவரை பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவத்தினர் சிறைபிடித்தனர்.

இதனால் நாடு முழுவதும் அபிநந்தனை விடுவிக்ககோரி குரல்கள் எழுந்தன. இந்திய அரசும் பாகிஸ்தான் அரசுக்கு அழுத்தம் கொடுத்தது. ஏற்கனவே இருநாடுகளுக்கும் போர் மூளும் சூழல் ஏற்பட்டதால், சமாதானத்துக்கு வழிவகுக்கும் வகையில் அபிநந்தனை விடுவிப்பதாக பாகிஸ்தான் பிரதமர் இம்ரன் கான் அறிவித்தார். இதையடுத்து அபிநந்தன் இன்று வாகா எல்லையில் தாயகம் திரும்பவுள்ளார். இந்நிலையில் அவரை வரவேற்கும் விதமாக மக்கள் மேளதாளங்களுடனும், தேசியக் கொடிகளை ஏந்தியும் உற்சாகத்துடன் காத்துக்கொண்டுள்ளனர்.

INDIA LOST IN KUMBH
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS / VNR : INFORMATION & PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT OF UTTAR PRADESH
RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only
LENGTH: 6:03
SHOTLIST:
VNR - INFORMATION & PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT OF UTTAR PRADESH – AP CLIENTS ONLY
Prayagraj – 4 February 2019
++EARLY EVENING SHOTS++
++MUTE++
1. Drone footage showing millions of people bathing at the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati during the Hindu Kumbh Mela (or Kumbh Festival)
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP CLIENTS ONLY
Prayagraj– 3 February 2019
2. Various of huge crowd of people walking to and back from the ritualistic bath at the confluence of rivers
3. Close of a sign on one of the lost and found centres set up at Kumbh festival, reading (Hindi): "Camp for the lost and separated."
4. Various of close up of women at the lost and found camp
5. Volunteers consoling a woman who just arrived at the lost and found camp as she cries ,UPSOUND (Hindi): "Your relatives will come here to find you. So sit here. You will find them. Don't be worried."
6. Another volunteer consoling the woman, UPSOUND (Hindi): "Don't cry"
7. Pan-left from the registration desk at the centre to volunteers talking to a woman who has been separated from her family
8. Close of the woman with teary eyes
9. Wide of the lost and found centre
10. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Kalindi Singh, festival attendee:
"If the crowd is so huge, what else is going to happen? In groups of 50 to 100 people get lost, there are millions here. So this is bound to happen."
(Reporter, off-camera asks, "But you still have hope?")
Singh: "Of course I have hope. I won't lose hope till the end."
11. Pan-left from one lost person to another
12. Lost people resting and waiting for their families to find them
13. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) (name not given), a woman who has been separated from her family for more than two days:
"Whether you have a son or a daughter, it is very important to educate daughters. My aunt used to tell me: 'come study.' I should have studied instead of working in the field. I got married at the age of 14 or 12. There were no photos taken back then. Today, I am reflecting as I sit here."
15. Lost people at the registration desk, filmed from behind a bamboo fence
16. A policeman asking a lost person, UPSOUND (Hindi): "How many people have you lost?" He replies, "50 people."
17. Various of lost people writing down their details on paper Close of the lost person giving his details
18. Various of a speaker announcing name and details of lost people,
UPSOUND (Hindi): "Shobha Pandey, Shobha Pandey, resident of Village Charauha, Parakpur Police Station, District Gonda. Wherever you are in the Mela grounds, please make your way to the lost and separated camp, your friend is waiting for you here."
19. Various of the announcements being blared from loudspeakers throughout the Mela Grounds
20. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Sant Prasad Pandey, manager at the lost and found centre at Kumbh for 40 years:
"We get very emotional when someone comes here, often crying, either children or women. So all we think of is how to help unite them with their loved ones. My eyes fill up with tears after seeing their pain. So we try our best to reunite them with their families as soon as possible."
21. Pan-left from street to the computerized lost and found centre run by the police
22. Close of a screen showing pictures and details of people who claim to be lost
23. People talking to volunteers at the lost and found desk, UPSOUND (Hindi): Volunteer asks, "Are you lost?"  the old man replies, "Yes."
24. Various of women talking to people at the lost and found centre
25. Volunteer asking people from her desk, UPSOUND (Hindi): "There are six of you? You have been separated from your group?"
26. Close of a woman at the lost and found centre
27. Woman having her picture taken
28. Close-up of computer screen showing her picture
29. Tilt-down from a woman getting her picture clicked to the computer screen
30. Close of a camera
31. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Devi Gulam, policeman in-charge of the lost and found centres:
"Before we didn't have lost and found centres like these. There used to only be announcements as a medium to alert the families. This time we have used a brand new technique, using digital technology, integrating lost and found centres, to try and reunite people with their families as soon as possible."
32. Various of elderly men who have been separated from their families sitting in a waiting room at the lost and found centre
33. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Devi Gulam, policeman in-charge of the lost and found centres:
"They (the elderly and children) sometimes don't remember phone numbers or addresses of their families. So, it is quite a challenge for me to find their families. So we contact the police station in their district, get the head of the village's contact information and arrange for a police to escort to take them back to their families."
34. Woman who has just been reunited with her nephew to their hands, UPSOUND (Hindi): volunteer asks, "What's your relation to her?" the man replies, "I am like her son. She is my aunt."
35. Woman crying with happiness before leaving with her nephew
36. Elderly woman being helped to stand up as her family member arrives to come and collect her
37. Volunteer saying to the woman, UPSOUND (Hindi): "Don't cry anymore, look you have found your family now. What else do you want. Go back happily."
38. Woman leaving with her family member
39. Various of two women looking out from the lost and found centre to try and catch a glimpse of their family members
VNR - INFORMATION & PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT OF UTTAR PRADESH – AP CLIENTS ONLY
Prayagraj – 4 February 2019
++NIGHT SHOTS++
++MUTE++
40. Drone footage showing millions of people bathing at the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati during the Hindu Kumbh Mela or Kumbh Festival
LEAD IN:
Kumbh Mela is one of the largest congregation of pilgrims in the world.
It is also the place where thousands of children, elderly men and women, from the most rural pockets of India, get separated from their families, and end up at the lost and found centres.
STORYLINE:
Every three years, millions of Hindus gather in one of the four set locations for Kumbh Mela, a series of ritualistic baths at the confluence of Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
The festival is so big, and the crowd it attracts so immense, it has a reputation for being one of the easiest places to get lost.
These elderly women have been separated from their families, and now spend their time gazing out of the lost and found centre for a glimpse of someone they might know.
Some have come in just hours ago.
Some have been here for days.
Though availability of mobile phones has made getting lost at Kumbh rarer than it used to be, many who are separated from their families don't have phones, and don't remember any phone numbers.
"If the crowd is so huge, what else will happen," says Kalindi Singh, a visitor from Bihar. "In groups of 50 to 100 people get lost, there are millions here. So, this is bound to happen."
But others are not as positive as Singh.
A woman from the state of Uttar Pradesh said she was lost after she started following a man in the crowd who resembled a member of her family from behind.
After a while when she finally approached the man, she realized she was lost.
Now as she sits at the lost and found centre, with tears flowing from her eyes, what she regrets the most is not getting an education.
"Whether you have a son or a daughter, it is very important to educate daughters," she says.
"My aunt used to tell me, 'come study.' I should have studied instead of working in the field. I got married at the age of 14 or 12. There were no photos taken back then. Today, I am reflecting as I sit here."
At the camp for the lost and separated, the process remains almost the same as it used to be 40 years ago when the centre was first set up by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
People give their name, family member's name, details of their native village or town, to volunteers and police at the registration desk, who jot them down on small pieces of paper.
These slips then make their way to the announcement booth, where speakers announce the details on loudspeakers set up throughout the camp.
The announcements go on all day, and on big bathing days when the crowd exceeds a million visitors, the announcements don't seem to stop.
Sant Prasad Pandey, who has been running the lost and found centre at Kumbh since its inception many years ago, says it takes an emotional toll on him.
"We get very emotional when someone comes here, often crying, either children or women. So, all we think of is how to help unite them with their loved ones. My eyes fill up with tears after seeing their pain. So, we try our best to reunite them with their families as soon as possible."
While announcements blaring through speakers is still the main way to reunite families at Kumbh, the government has set up 15 computerized lost and found centres this year, to speed up the process.
Instead of using pen and paper, volunteers here are entering the details and pictures of those lost on a database that is shared with local police stations, and displayed on screens throughout the Mela grounds.
"Before we didn't have lost and found centres like these." says Devi Gulam, the police man in charge of the computerized lost and found centres at Kumbh.
"There used to only be announcements as a medium to alert the families.
This time we have used a brand new technique, using digital technology, integrating lost and found centres, to try and reunite people with their families as soon as possible."
Even with technological help and, Gulam says, his biggest challenge is helping the elderly and children who don't remember any phone numbers, and sometimes don't even know the names of their village or towns.
"It is quite a challenge for me to find their families. So, we contact the police station in their district, get the head of the village's contact information and arrange for a police to escort to take them back to their families," he explains.
However, it isn't always gloomy at the lost and found centres of Kumbh.
The tears of sadness quickly turn into tears of joy when family members, alerted by announcements, show up to take their mothers, aunts, fathers, or children, back home.
Firmly holding hands so they don't get lost and separated again, they leave the lost and found centres relieved.
But not everyone gets lucky right away.
For every individual reunited with their families, there are many whose teary eyes eagerly search for familiar faces in the sea of people at Kumbh.
Their only hope is to be reunited with their families before the Kumbh Festival ends on March 4.
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