So desperate!

Here in India we often hear people trampling each other to get food, water, medicines and clothes. Some or the other natural calamity becomes the cause of such scenes and the spine chilling images give you sleepless nights, lest this happens to you one day. Once on TV they showed a flood hit area; people were tearing each others’ clothes, pulling each others’ hair, throwing people in the ditches to reach the trucks that had brought food. But a stampede to get a laptop?

According to this report a rush to purchase $50 laptops caused a stampede, resulting in many people being admitted to the local hospital. A local school was selling 1,000 odd iBooks for $50 each. Normally an iBook notebook costs around $1,000. Although the school gates were to be opened in the morning, people stood in the queue from 1 am. A lady was so afraid of losing her place in the queue that she peed in her pants but didn’t leave her place. What tenacity! Just see the level of desperation:

People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl’s stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.

This seems a bit bizarre, doesn’t it? I mean, OK, I would love to lay my hands on an iBook, but like this? Never! I’ll be ashamed of myself for the rest of my life. Fighting for food seems much more preferable. No, I change my mind. I think fighting for a cheap laptop is better than having to fight for food and clothes, much better.