Some unbearably gruesome pictures of Mariupol I saw this Easter Sunday morning on Facebook made me immediately react with a similar sounding term in my mother tongue Tamil - marana pol.
Marana pol in Tamil means 'like death' and this implication is so perfectly befitting what the Russians have done to the city of a half a million people.
Later in the day I looked up the meaning of Mariupol in Ukrainian and Russian. It means the city of (Mother) Mary. Mariu is Mary and pol comes from the Greek word polis for city.
The city is situated adjoining the northern coast of the Azov sea in the Donetsk region where a lot of Russian speaking people (Russian settlers) live. Russia and Ukraine have earlier fought for control of the city and the region. But Ukraine wrestled control and has been in charge till Russia recently chose to fully raze it to the ground along with its Russian settlers who accounted for about 44% (though more than half left the city before the war).
What is interesting about the Russian aggression is that the Russian leadership, made mostly of Russian Orthodox Christians, showed no respect nor restraint against a city that bears the name of one of Christianity's most peaceful and venerable personalities. The Russians also did not show any consideration for the lives of fellow Russians in whose name Russia has constantly sought to possess the city and the region.
When wild passions overtake humans that are prone to wild behaviours, one cannot expect sanity, thoughtfulness, and restraint from them. Their behaviour becomes totally unreasonable and dangerous.
Mariupol - Mother Mary's city has indeed been turned into marana pol (like death) by the Russians.
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