Chennai Silks fire: How we wake up only after the disaster

My cab is stopped on Usman Road and diverted. "VIP movementaa?" I am about to ask, a bit annoyed.

"Chennai Silks kadaiyila periya fire Madam, kaalaiyerundhu route block pannittaanga. Innum neruppa anaikka mudiyala," the cab driver informs me.

As he swerves away into Burkit Road, all I can see of the famed square mile of T.Nagar, the most famous retail district in India, is billowing grey smoke. Not the glittering high-rise shopping centres and no bustling crowds. The ground zero of India's retail revolution is just smoke.

My cabbie recovers faster, "ellam insurance panniyiruppanga."

Now I am taken aback. Any accident, anywhere and I wonder which of my erstwhile insurance colleagues, friends or acquaintances has issued the policy. Which company, which branch? Who would be making that call to the surveyor just now? That's normal for me.

What surprises me is how quickly the cabbie thinks of insurance too. It is almost like a word association game. Say fire, and insurance comes to mind. Unfortunately many a time, only in hindsight. But then hindsight is where things are simple, clear and obvious. A no-brainer.

But when it is time to take a policy or renew it, when you are on top of the world and no disaster can touch you, insurance is a fly to be swatted away. Accidents happen only to others and, insurance, if at all, is just a box to be checked, a document to be submitted to the bank, a hated cheque to be written. An investment without return.

Until a short circuit or a careless cigarette butt transforms it into something more. Something that stands between you and total wipeout.

Insurance, however belongs with foresight. Once you decide to insure, what to insure and how much to insure it for are simple.

A good next level thinking is to insure a building or factory or equipment for not only its present value but what it would cost to rebuild or replace, called reinstatement value.

You can insure not only the loss of the material assets of your business, the building, the plant and machinery, but the consequential loss due to a fire, or in other words, the loss of profits until you can resume business.

In addition to foresight, insurance protection requires diligent attention to detail as well. Proper documentation of the insured property, periodic updates on their content, value etc. Regular declaration of stocks in a warehouse or showroom, intimation of changes in nature and location of stocks or machinery… in short proper disclosure of all the relevant information an insurer ought to know as one who assesses your risk and prices it and pays you when it is damaged.

You can also buy insurance to take care of legal liabilities. What if people die in the accident on your premises? What about damage to their property? And damage to nearby property due to this accident? They can sue you for compensation.

You can also be sued for public liability due to the smoke, due to the chemicals released into the atmosphere, due to the fire itself. Yes, sure, insurance is available for all this.

Insurance is a sophisticated protection. While you work on recovering from the psychological shock and challenged business confidence, it gives you cash to rebuild your business.

It is complex to buy and to maintain. But it is as comprehensive as you want to make it as well. What's more, your insurer and his team are ready to take you through the process of buying and maintaining the most appropriate coverage so that your loss becomes their loss.

Conceptually, what more can you ask for at a time of financial loss?

In the aftermath the debate will rage about the alleged building violations over decades, and authorised and unauthorised alterations, the fire escapes stacked with inventory, the hot kitchens, the overworked air-conditioning plants or generators for backup power.

The talk will be about luck and responsibility and conversations will end fatalistically with comments on how all these are common practices.

Maybe people will be nervous about shopping in crowded high-rises in the vicinity for a while. Maybe. The human spirit is very resilient, unfortunately. Regretfully, it is unrepentant too.

(The writer specialises in insurance)