A few days back we went to a movie, Incredibles 2, at a theatre in a reputed mall in Bengaluru close to my home. It was a Sunday evening and there was a sale going on – so the mall was crowded. 30 minutes into the movie, smoke started emanating from the AC vents and we all could smell something burning. People got up from their seats and started looking for the source. As it continued, we walked out of the theatre and assembled while the staff took over the situation.
As we were heading back home, I was very pleased with the fact that the whole process was very smooth and people were calm. Very frequently, we get to read of fire accidents and casualties in those accidents. One thing that was in common to all these instances was, people getting killed or injured in stampede. Sometimes, the stampede causes more damage than the fire. In fact, the stampede inflicts the damage even before the fire does. However, in this instance, what I saw was that people were very calm and composed while coming out of the theatre and people were instructing others to stay calm and leave one by one.
Why was this incident so different from the other incidents that I read?
One argument could be that none of us actually saw the fire so we were calm.
But, I feel that there is something else that had a significant influence in this instance. The area where I live is mostly has people who work in these tech parks. All these buildings have mandatory fire-drill exercises that they conduct from time to time. We all crib about these exercises and reluctantly participate in them. However, I strongly feel that it is this practise that helped us to evacuate the theatre in a calm and an orderly manner.
In fact, we all know of animals that work hard in summer accumulating food to survive the hostile winters. My dad used to say that in olden days, people used to store grains so that there is no shortage in rainy season.
Bringing it all together, what we learn when we are doing well determines how we face the challenging times. So, never stop learning.
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