Page 29 - The Insurance Times September 2025

We see thousands of deaths everyday yet we think we are know the meaning of Ring-a-ring o' roses? Besides knowing
permanent - that we will live forever. In fact, we cannot that it is a nursery rhyme, we do not know anything about
imagine ourselves to be dead! Religion, books and others it. In fact, we have never learnt.
say about the impermanence of life yet we think we are
permanent. The above referred nursery rhyme has its origin in the dark
ages. It is often suggested that the rhyme relates to the symp-
From the insurance perspective, how do we learn? How can toms of plague - the Black Death, the bubonic plague that
we minimize accidents? How can we save lives, disabilities spread through Europe in the 1340s, or to the Great Plague of
and property? Except certain huge accidents that attract London, 1665/6. The plausible-sounding theory has it that the
the attention of the world like - a plane crash or a cruise 'ring' was the ring of sores around the mouths of plague vic-
ship like Costa Concordia sinking in 2012, or a major train tims, who subsequently sneezed and fell down dead. A rosy rash
accident or the recent terrorist attack at Pahalgam on in- was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were car-
nocent people, none will catch the imagination of the pub- ried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease.
lic, or they will be quickly forgotten! After that it's life as
usual! The 14th century plague wiped out half the population of
Europe leaving the dead bodies thrown around in the streets
of all major its cities. The observations of our ancestors were
coined in beautiful phrases for example, in this case in the
form of a nursery rhyme to enable to pass on to posterity.
We did pass it on from generation to generation so that the
children would learn about the great bubonic plague that
spread through Europe. Did we learn? Do we understand
the implications of this nursery rhyme? Let us leave it at this
- you are the best judge here.

Coming back to salvage, what do we do with salvage? Must
What is happening here? We are observing, we are under- we not pass on the lessons learnt of a specific salvaged prop-
standing the mistakes committed or things we should have erty for posterity? An accident can happen either in Kash-
omitted; we resolve not to repeat similar mistake. These mir or Kanyakumari, Kolkata or Coimbatore - wherever it
resolutions do not last 24 hours! We have to learn from our happens, the lesson must be learnt and learnt by all. For
mistakes or from the mistakes of others. We should not re- example, wonderful and inexpensive creations can be manu-
peat similar mistakes. Soon after an accident, an animal is factured from the salvaged property. One of them, for ex-
very careful whenever it faces similar situation and man is ample, would be the police road blocks. Utilizing the useful
not worse than an animal. parts from a salvaged property one can manufacture road
blocks for the traffic use and regulation.
Insurance Salvage shall mean and implies that there was an
accident resulting in the loss of property, lives or both. In-
surer has paid his claim as per the policy terms and condi-
tions. The salvage became insurer's property. Salvage
teaches a lot to the world we can learn a lot from the
salvage.

Ring-A Ring O' Roses
Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.

Our children, when they read this nursery rhyme, look beau- Road Blocks can be manufactured from Salvage
tiful, adorable and very cute. We shower them with bless-
ings, kisses and feel proud of their learning. But, do you Rather than meaningless commercial advertisements on

The Insurance Times September 2025 27