Who knew it could be me!

Disclaimer: Any resemblance of current affairs to events mentioned in this blog is purely coincidental!

The other day I was at the gym and my heart was pounding really fast and it was not due to the kick-a$$ workout but because of the article that I was reading. It was Times magazine with a cover story of Disaster recovery readiness or some such. The article was about how humans react to a disaster analyzing mob mentality. It had a mention of ship Estonia that sunk with nose first and disappeared completely in less than 30 mins. One of the survivors gave an account of his experience. Apparently, with a sudden dip the ship tilted and people got thrown off and kept sliding down. He had expected a lot of shouting and cries for help but, to the contrary, people were strangely quiet. Dumbfounded? They refused to react to the situation. One person that this guy remembered was smoking a cigarette on the deck. It was part denial and part intense fear that pushed the brain into a the state of shock failing to send any response. As I read the article further in utter disbelief, it said how during evacuation due to a fire at a wedding a guy ordered a rum and coke to go! The article talked about people freezing in the face of imminent danger similar to a deer in front of the head lights of a car. Some people who survived that were the ones who tried hard to move and get into the lifesaving boats et al. And yelling seemed to have gotten some people out of the stupor. Not surprisingly, I got reminded of the scenes of N. shymalan's "The happenings".
It went further in explaining how you train the mind in an event of an unlikely event and how air hostesses are trained to shout in case of a disaster.
And I woke up this morning feeling like one of those people who waited on the sinking ship in anticipation. WHY did I not jump ship? And no there are no obvious signs of panic from others either. Everything seems to move in a queer rhythm as I say to myself-

I'm a new soul.
I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a bit ‘bout how to give and take.
But since I came here…..felt the joy and the fear.....finding myself making every possible mistake.
la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
This is a happy end. 'course you don't understand.
Everything you have done...... why's everything so wrong?