A recent disaster in Kolkata brings out the lookie-loos - and much more.
I watched on television in horror at a man trapped between two taxi cabs, his leg pinned by a fallen girder. I saw desperate hands reaching out from the rubble. Bystanders, unable to move the concrete, could only offer bottles of water. Many, stuck for hours, died waiting for rescue.
Disasters cannot be foreseen, but disaster response can be planned. This was a monumental failure of Kolkata as a city.