In a bizarre incident in Gopalpur in Odisha’s Ganjam district, a man who’d just been rescued along with his family from a potentially dangerous situation created by the high-speed winds of cyclone Phalin, took off towards the eye of the storm after a swarm of reporters besieged him seeking quotes for their respective TV channels.

According to a passerby, 45 year old Shashikant Sahoo had barely sunk to the ground in relief and exhaustion after shepherding his family through treacherous rains and winds, when scores of scruffy looking journalists surrounded him, shoved their microphones in his face and asked questions like ‘Kaisa lag raha hai aapko baal baal bachke?‘, ‘How are you feeling after your Cyclone Phailin blew the roof off your house?’, ‘Do you think Naveen Patnaik’s disaster management is better than Narendra Modi’s?’, upon which the survivor panicked and ran headlong into winds blowing at over 150 kmph, arms flailing in all directions.

A section of the journalists then took off after the survivor with outstretched microphones, shouting their questions, while the rest excitedly turned back to the cameras and delivered a scintillating commentary on the man’s path into the storm – the more nimble of the TV channels supplementing the commentary with live footage of the fleeing man, tracked by the familiar red circle.

A sobbing Kamladevi Sahoo, wife of the man in question later said, “Thanks to God’s grace and the authorities, we were saved from the cyclone, but who will save us from you guys?”

Thankfully, Sahoo was rescued once again by NDMA authorities and later reunited with his family. The Sahoos are said to be rapidly recovering from the trauma at a spot safe from both the cyclone and the journalists.

(Based on an idea by Ashwin Kumar)