Speaking to the head of security of an Indian Airline Company on my way to work in the bus a few days back I realised even he was dumbfounded by the events.
As a frequent traveller, sitting on that bus in silence after our conversation, I felt anxious at first. How does he of all people not know how a scheduled and tracked plane departs but never arrives at its destination?
A few seconds later though, these feelings abruptly changed. I realised almost instantly that I was not as much in the centre of these happenings, as were all those people on that flight. Where are they? What must be of them? I had no answers to this and before I knew it the mind moved onto something else.
I thought about that mother, the father, those kids, the friends and relatives that are eagerly awaiting news of those 239 people who have suddenly gone missing. All we know of them is through some photographs of relatives and friends, here and there. Every single one of them shows distress. What is of them? How are they managing this uncertainty?
It’s been 15 days of air and sea search and all we hear about are happenings and events which to me seem very tangible in nature. News channels and heads of different authorities saying a few people who checked in never boarded, stolen passports, discussions on whether those with stolen passports on flight had certain features or not, the possibility of the flight detouring..
Although this is important and very necessary for everyone to know, I wonder about all that communication which addresses the intangible? Something so valuable as a life, so real as feelings.
The existence of the 239 people on board that flight is questionable at this moment. But what about their people? This group does exist, why hasn’t anyone from Malaysian Airlines addressed them adequately or given them some proper support during more than 2 weeks? They may not have answers to explain the causes of this calamity. But is that all the company needs to face up to?
Finding it difficult to comprehend, I thought about all of this and realised that things which are tangible are maybe easier to deal with and find solutions and answers for.
We seem to favour this.. doing things that are simple for us, tackling problems which have a structure to finding a solution for. I'm not complaining or raising fingers about this, I do it too. But then, there is so much more beyond every situation. Realities which although intangible, do exist but may not have a structure to them, things which cannot be explained with words and may not be rational to us but are still very real. Shouldn't we give these equal importance?
Feelings and emotions are intangible and most definitely more complex to understand and support, but I wonder, aren't these intangibilities what makes us human?