CHAPTER 24

1 In this study, although I found the belief in karma to be quite prevalent in Selari village, some urban survivors too shared their realization of the temporariness of worldly objects and activities. Furthermore, their action (for example, nurturing younger ones to give a new meaning to life) showed a commitment towards contributing whatever they could to nature’s “beings”. So, in some of the urban survivors, too, I observed a tendency to transcend the boundary of their ‘I’.

2 Although in this paper I have written about how the metaphysical beliefs of the survivors made healing possible, I also found that healing was rare among those survivors who held on to materialistic beliefs. Particularly in the urban setting, I found threatening post-earthquake socio-economic events (e.g., development of the boundaries of caste and class) that were impeding the healing process, as there the individualistic lifestyles and materialistic notions of health and illness disabled them from positively re-constructing their sorrow. I have reported these findings elsewhere (see Priya, 2004).

3 These participants are referred to as ‘survivors’ throughout this paper. Because of ethical concerns, the names of these survivors and other key informants that have been reported are not their original names.

4 ‘Kargil war’ is a popular term given to an Indian Armed Forces’ military operation in 1999 in the state of Jammu and Kashmir to drive out infiltrators from Pakistan who had crossed the Line of Control into India. These infiltrators had constructed bunkers in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir from where they waged a mini-war on the Indian armed forces.

5 It took my mother almost a year to recover from meningitis and another year to completely recover from the loss of memory resulting from the disease and its treatment.