I know it’s been a while, but I just realized that if I don’t write now, I might throw up from all that has been churning inside of me and sickening me. It’s Thanksgiving day 2008 and I can but take my eyes off of the news feeds pouring onto my screen from home -
“Bombay under siege”
“Massacre in Mumbai”
“Explosions rock Mumbai”
As painful and terrifying as it is, are we surprised, people? When I say ‘we’ I address my Indian brothers and sisters. My heart bleeds at the pictures and cries while another part of me is fuming at the sheer failure of trust in the system. I think we lost faith in it ages ago and have come to a point where we are comfortable enough to laugh about it. This was even more clear to me when I spoke to a good friend of mine who actually said “we have infiltrators who come and train in India or just come trained from elsewhere, But we are fine” – FINE??? FINE?
Thank God she was talking to me over the phone or else she would have a gotten an earful- I mean that literally too. But it occurred to me soon enough- isn’t that simply a voice of the majority of how Indians think? We are ‘fine’ as long as MY house is untouched even as my neighbour’s house may be mourning in so many ways.
Have we lost the all sense of community? Have we become so immune to all that goes on around us? Can we not cry or laugh with our neighbor anymore without squirming about the possibility of a return visit? Why are we still laughing out loud about the corruption among those who are supposed to protect us and not drag their dirty behinds out and do something about it? Why do we call a panel of veteran journalists, and politicians to offer their 2 cents worth on air while the curtain behind burns? Why is it that when we see pictures of injured children, we still can’t feel mortified enough to get out of that chair and do something? And why are we pandering to evil minds that are thirsty for one more destructive idea, through our movies?
And what may I ask are our leaders doing to protect our borders? How easily did a ‘well planned low tech’ attack cripple a nation that always knew this was a possibility! Or did we think that something like this was so easy that it probably wouldn’t have been carried out? To get a bit deeper and dirtier- Did they succumb to a morbid obsession of hoping to see something like this play out and thus have some part of their sick psyche get a rush for as long as this goes on like in a crime thriller?
Why is it that a terrorist can plan better than a government agency or a community? When a postmortem of the modus operandi is often done, people talk of sophistication of planning and efficiency of delivery etc.
But what I feel is that these sick minds use the simplest route that comes to mind. They seem to think like children who draw pictures of what they like. It’s as simple as the map a child draws for Santa to get to her tree at home, from the North Pole. We brush aside a lot of child like thinking, because it’s not jaded enough to be sophisticated or credited for. Passage is efficient and free often where guards are down or nonexistent. This is exactly what happens in our cities and borders.
Isn’t it shocking and outrageous when u hear of the sheer volume of people who were victimized by smaller weapons of destruction like grenades and Kalashnikovs and not faceless bombs etc? This time it is personal as the perpetrators would have seen the eyes of those whose life they snuffed out mercilessly. They came on a boat and simply docked on our shores and ravished our city. How much damage can some disturbed minds do? Why should we still be ok with the way things work?
Just like most of you feel, there is so much more to be addressed. But instead of holding a panel, I hope I can do something in the coming days to ease the pain of at least one person hurting back home. My thoughts and prayers are with all the Jawans and innocent people who are in the middle of this mess and to all of u who share my sorrow.
Jai Hind!
“Bombay under siege”
“Massacre in Mumbai”
“Explosions rock Mumbai”
As painful and terrifying as it is, are we surprised, people? When I say ‘we’ I address my Indian brothers and sisters. My heart bleeds at the pictures and cries while another part of me is fuming at the sheer failure of trust in the system. I think we lost faith in it ages ago and have come to a point where we are comfortable enough to laugh about it. This was even more clear to me when I spoke to a good friend of mine who actually said “we have infiltrators who come and train in India or just come trained from elsewhere, But we are fine” – FINE??? FINE?
Thank God she was talking to me over the phone or else she would have a gotten an earful- I mean that literally too. But it occurred to me soon enough- isn’t that simply a voice of the majority of how Indians think? We are ‘fine’ as long as MY house is untouched even as my neighbour’s house may be mourning in so many ways.
Have we lost the all sense of community? Have we become so immune to all that goes on around us? Can we not cry or laugh with our neighbor anymore without squirming about the possibility of a return visit? Why are we still laughing out loud about the corruption among those who are supposed to protect us and not drag their dirty behinds out and do something about it? Why do we call a panel of veteran journalists, and politicians to offer their 2 cents worth on air while the curtain behind burns? Why is it that when we see pictures of injured children, we still can’t feel mortified enough to get out of that chair and do something? And why are we pandering to evil minds that are thirsty for one more destructive idea, through our movies?
And what may I ask are our leaders doing to protect our borders? How easily did a ‘well planned low tech’ attack cripple a nation that always knew this was a possibility! Or did we think that something like this was so easy that it probably wouldn’t have been carried out? To get a bit deeper and dirtier- Did they succumb to a morbid obsession of hoping to see something like this play out and thus have some part of their sick psyche get a rush for as long as this goes on like in a crime thriller?
Why is it that a terrorist can plan better than a government agency or a community? When a postmortem of the modus operandi is often done, people talk of sophistication of planning and efficiency of delivery etc.
But what I feel is that these sick minds use the simplest route that comes to mind. They seem to think like children who draw pictures of what they like. It’s as simple as the map a child draws for Santa to get to her tree at home, from the North Pole. We brush aside a lot of child like thinking, because it’s not jaded enough to be sophisticated or credited for. Passage is efficient and free often where guards are down or nonexistent. This is exactly what happens in our cities and borders.
Isn’t it shocking and outrageous when u hear of the sheer volume of people who were victimized by smaller weapons of destruction like grenades and Kalashnikovs and not faceless bombs etc? This time it is personal as the perpetrators would have seen the eyes of those whose life they snuffed out mercilessly. They came on a boat and simply docked on our shores and ravished our city. How much damage can some disturbed minds do? Why should we still be ok with the way things work?
Just like most of you feel, there is so much more to be addressed. But instead of holding a panel, I hope I can do something in the coming days to ease the pain of at least one person hurting back home. My thoughts and prayers are with all the Jawans and innocent people who are in the middle of this mess and to all of u who share my sorrow.
Jai Hind!
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