A Little Bit of Everything.......

India’s tryst with terror just doesn’t seem to get over. If anything, it is getting worse by the moment. Terrorists struck again last night – uglier than ever before. And they struck. Not once but ten times. Or may be more by the time you read this.

This has been worst ever terror attack. Lasting for more than 24 hours. Killing over 100. Injuring over 250. They don’t care anymore. Nationals, tourists, locals – anyone and everyone who is in the visibility. It’s the kind we could never imagine. Open fire on the innocent. Imagine what it is like to be in Kashmir!

Just a few hours before this massacre began the Roomie and I were there. We stalked almost every place that was blasted later that night. We were most enthusiastic about our shopping spree. I even wrote the last blog post after we got back. Later that night, all seemed so unreal and trivial. How does it matter? Shopping, getting tagged and all of that.

The Precious One was there that very night, at one of our favorite hangouts – for an hour. That was the toughest hour of my life. Frantically calling people, co-ordinating with them…

Only after he got back to safety, realization dawned on me that there are other people also, very dear to me, on whom I must check at once. And once I was assured that everyone was safe, I went into the usual musings.

How it has become so unpredictable suddenly…. How there is no way you can waste your time fighting with friends or family – there might not be a time for making it up…. How, it no longer ends at the fact that your family is safe because you know that every life is so precious…. How every month in the past year talks of some terror attack in various parts of the country….

Before I could drift off to sleep, I was given constant updates by friends about the big cops crumbling, the army being involved, fresh blasts at the venues and such other gory details.

Got up in the morning to face more bad news. More people dying. Government torn between foreign ties and national security. Media hawking the place. (Barkha Dutt still does the best covering job.) Should the government negotiate? Each one with their own views. The question is – if we do / don’t negotiate, is it going to resolve the problem forever?

The city calls out for help. Life seems unfair. There are still exams to take. And other such trivial realities of life. The show must go on.... 

Stay Safe... all of you!