ATTACKED!

They attacked, yet again !

I had been waiting since a very long time to write something on the Mumbai attacks. I don’t know whether I waited for the right words and feelings to come across or I waited for my mind to get a clearer picture of the entire gory episode.

The day I became aware of the attack, which was some 3 - 4 hours after the actual attack, the first thing I do (duhh me) was to call up people back home and hear their backlash since it was 2.30 am in India ! But concern takes over the sensible me, and somewhere down the heart I know it can’t or rather shouldn’t involve anyone I know ! How very amusing that thought is? Come to think about it. Each one of us, from India, or any part of the world, has been in a situation when a bomb or similar terror has taken the city where we belong to, by horror!! I had this fearful thought, do we the people, understand the grief of losing someone to such an unimaginable terror episode, only when it occurs to someone of us , among us , related to us !! I really don’t know. I have faced grief and if I am thinking of losing someone like this, I don’t even know how bad I will feel! More than the terror strike, the fear of being afraid is scary! Each night I followed that episode closely, praying that morning will bring an end to the strike. But my prayers are never answered on time, so this too was no exception. Days and nights of terror, imagine the plight of the people whose loved ones were there, trapped inside, killed inside and all you can do is feel helpless. The feeling is worst. Much more worse than what one would feel when your loved one on death table is taken for an operation in the OT and all you do is stand outside, praying ! Now each time a son goes to work, his mother, wife, daughter would be praying, that he comes back home, safe and sound. All the things and people whom you associate to in daily life, starting from the building gate keeper, to the guy who cleans your car, to the man whom you see at the traffic signal, to the local train you might catch, to the work place, and till the confined four walls of your cubicle ---everything, is so not dependable, so scary, and so undefined!

Terrorists this time, I assume, got what they wanted! Though our ex-minister R.R.Patil may not agree with me!!! They came to strike terror. They came to loosen the bonds of the irreversible reaction that we Indians, Mumbaikars go through each day! And they did it! There were no demands, no requests, and no huge motives behind this attack. I personally do not believe the fact that they wanted to attack some special race or religion in particular. Otherwise, I doubt if they would have gone with that random spraying of bullets at various locations. They wanted to make sure that our country never has a good neighbor. The generation I belong to, has not seen the Independence movement and we are not aware of non-violence more than a term that which belongs to the history text book. Violence is what we know. Violence is what we have seen. Violence is what we are meant to assume can bring a ‘change’, something we so badly need! So what’s next? The generation, the people wants revenge. Revenge that can forever tell those terrorists, or the bad guys, that do no harm because we are capable of the same! Gone are the days of showing your other cheek! Subtle, we certainly are not.

As I read and see the pictures and stories, of how my city is proving it yet again that we can stand up, just the other day, I feel proud. Leopold Café was full of people, the day it re-opens! A huge Q full of people! It does show that no terror attack can scare us to keep us confined in our homes but it also shows that people are done with being mute and dumb. The no noise movies are passé ! People have gathered, and youth especially are trying to act. I really don’t know whether a war, or some drastic measures on the so-called outside elements is going to help the situation, but I strongly pray that India goes in the hands of the person, next time ! President rule is what seems to be the ‘happening’ thing at the moment. And Power, I believe is something not everyone can handle. It is a very heavy thing, and to handle it the right way, using all the right sources, is indeed a very huge task. Saying all that, I wonder the real attackers, the one who worked behind the scenes are actually happy to see what they wanted to see or are they scared of the outcome? Scared wouldn’t be the right word, but I do pray that it makes them think twice before doing something so nasty! Some Buddhist friends of mine are chanting for a peace period keeping in target a few months. The attack has shaken us to the very core. Even though, the real motive, the real attackers are unknown, that we don’t know currently, or we will never know, they have achieved the goal of creating the irrational fear for people of ‘neighboring’ countries. The paranoid being will be seen at large, eyeing each and every element that seems suspicious. Brotherhood is history. Time for revenge!! I was surprised or not surprised when I read a placard which said “1947, Non-violence got us independence. 2008, Ak-47” Yes, they have attacked that part of us and it’s going to take eons for those wounds to heal.