March 21, 2014

Will this Story Have an End?

Everybody likes a good story, especially ones filled with mystery, suspense and thrill, in which they can be a part of it as it develops and grows, and wait eagerly to know what happens next. This description sounds good for a movie or television series, but becomes a sad reality when it is a real life event involving people, their safety and their lives.

I have been obsessed with the missing Malaysian Airlines Plane story, to put it lightly. I have grasped every bit of proven fact, drifting rumor, passing thoughts, theoretical data, posed questions, probable answers, within hours of its release. So much so that if I wake up in the middle of the night, I check online to see if the search conducted by the waking countries at that hour, has found anything. I think it is among the biggest stories there have been in terms of the number of unknown elements involved. The media with its reputation of taking a "headlines story" and playing and replaying it for days, over analyzing things and beating it to death, is doing its part well. They have gathered "expert comments" on every small detail there can possibly be. And I am sure it is doing wonders their viewership ratings.

But what I am avoiding reading/watching is the reactions of the families of the passengers on that plane. It feels too sad to look at their lost faces and hear their pleas and cries. To go through a tragedy is one thing, but to remain void for days, with the speculators swinging your emotions between the stories of the plane being landed, to the plane being crashed is another! For me the news and reports is like unraveling a mystery that I really want to know about. For them it might be the end of the hope they have clutched on to for the past 14 days.

The curiosity led to digging some news from the past and reading about various air crashes, watching a documentary about the myths of the Bermuda Triangle exposed, watching the movie Flight. And recalling the gripping series Lost that starts with a wrecked plane on a Lost Island.

These kind of stories are best enjoyed when they don't involve playing with emotions of people. In stories, it is fun when you can twist the plot, speculate about who the villain is, introduce unprecedented characters, make it into a science fiction, introduce some tragedy, add comedy, finish it off with action. But when it involves the lives of 239 people and their families, the story becomes highly sensitive, and it is important to only broadcast/publish accurate information. Just being practical, I am not sure what to hope for all these people, just hope things are brought to a closure for them!

2 comments:

A. Catherine Noon said...

I sure hope those poor people find their way home!

I'm participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge too, and your name is a couple down from mine in the list so I thought I'd stop by to say hello. Happy writing!

Madhu said...

Thanks for stopping by Catherine! Looking forward to some fun reading and writing in the next few weeks!