The ridiculousness of our curiosity: Tourists braving cyclone Mocha for ‘fun’

Cyclone Mocha has been the topic of discussion for the last few days. We all expected to find information about the cyclone all over the news portals and social media, but the news that people are defying 'great danger signal' to witness the rough weather and seas was not something I expected. However, maybe it should not come as too big of a surprise.

"Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man" — this is a line from Homer's Odyssey. Well, Homer said 'weaker' but 'ridiculous' is more apt these days. You might have thought the same when you saw reports that people were travelling to the beach (with their family too?) to 'experience' the cyclone.  

Our need to 'experience' everything is nothing new. This need for experience has been seen very frequently lately. Whether it's a super cyclone or a dangerous flood, people are going out because apparently, they 'want to see.' Unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, which would run off at the first of danger, we love to be at the forefront of all sorts of troublesome situations.

This is just one example where it only affects the individual but what about instances of road accidents and fires. People will gather around to watch but very few will come forward to help. But credit should be given where it's due. The onlookers are always careful to gather in a circular or semi-circular crowd. At least they have a good sense of geometry! They might be standing in the way but they are looking good doing it.

And may God bless all the overly enthusiastic amateur photographers who cannot resist the urge to snap a selfie or record a video for their Tiktok or Facebook live, because otherwise how will you validate your thrill-seeking nature? A cyclone is coming? No worries. You can count on these brave members of the society to record every minute before the news media can ever gather their camera. Curiosity killed the cat, but not us. They may have nine lives, but our one life is tough enough to weather through many curiosities.

If Homer were alive, he could probably write another epic about our endless curiosity and I strongly believe that his script would be rejected because it's not realistic enough. After all, who is going to believe that people head towards natural calamities to 'relax' and 'chill' instead of running away from it?