I get up today morning at ten thirty, (don’t judge me…was up last night with some important work….anyways, this isn’t about me!) and I see the headlines plastered across the newspaper, “29 DIE AS 17 BLASTS RIP THROUGH AHMEDABAD”. Bloody 17 blasts!!!! That’s the most no. of blasts I have ever heard of in a terrorist attack on my country since I was born. Cumulatively!! I try to get up off the bed but there’s still only two words resounding in my head, “Seventeen Blasts!!!” .Walk toward the bathroom to brush my teeth, and they’re still there, “Seventeen Blasts!!!” .Walking back to the room, “Seventeen Blasts!!!”. I decide to go to my friend’s room to vent my frustration. He opens his door and I blurt out, “SEVENTEEN BLASTS!!!” His reply, “Fifteen blasts”. I give him a puzzling look that even the Joker from the earlier Batman movies would kill to have on his own face to go with his diabolical schemes. But that’s what he chose to refute with me about - the number of blasts reported by his newspaper vs. mine. Does nobody else see the sheer ludicrous insanity of the actions of these so called terrorist organizations? Okay!! So we’ll take the magic number as fifteen for future references in this rambling monologue of mine. But is fifteen any better? There shouldn’t even be one blast to read of in the newspapers. And here I am being greeted on consecutive days with news of how the security apparatus of our…no wait…my country is just a complete mockery of the meaning of the word “secure”. Do I feel secure? Hell no!! Not about my life, not about my family’s life which by the way lives in Ahmedabad. But that’s beside the point. I don’t feel terrorized by this news, may be for the sheer reason that if I do, I’m letting these sadist Tiffin bombers actually succeed in their intensions. But what I can’t believe or rather understand is that why do we keep letting this happen. Can I never walk in piece on the roads without the gushing urge to call the bomb squad every time I see a deserted cycle parked in a civilized street? Shouldn’t I not have to stop reading the newspapers daily just because they give me the most repetitive feeling of déjà vu? Shouldn’t there be an actual organization that tries and prevent these incidents from repeating over and over again? OH yeah!! There is such an organization, the POLICE. Right…Well we all know how great they are. A murderer kills two may be three people? A robber may kill somebody while making his escape. But freaking 29 people killed by an organization that used the email to claim responsibility. And there’s no way to figure out actually whodunit. Even if they come knocking to our doors once every month with the most stony calling card of death, we don’t consider them worth spending our time and effort on.
To think such incidents happened right after the government’s “victory” on the nuke deal is really laudable. And I’m not even being sarcastic. We can see how involved the country’s governors are in a deal with the country that perhaps is the most used example of global hegemony ever. Sure, our internal safety measures might be as obscure as the Indian Postal Service, but let’s keep up the image of being en route to being the next global power and turn a blind eye to our “little” problems within. They’re ‘internal’ right? We can solve them anytime. All right, guess the sarcasm kind of leaked out in spite of my best attempts. But before I wrap up this dialogue, I would really like to know what can we do individually to prevent this. Every time the tabloids finish by pleading everyone to be more vigil and keep their eyes and ears peeled to notice any inconsistency. It doesn’t work that way people. One person’s imagination may get him labeled as being paranoid and frowned upon. Think what would happen with everyone’s paranoia let loose on the streets. Utter chaos perhaps? But let’s not forget that it is each individual’s duty to keep a watch out but there’s a limit to our reach, and then helplessness prevails simply because of the sheer enormity of “the unknown”. AAMIR anyone?
