BANG !

It is very depressing to see scores of people die in an accident. And it is all the more distressing when the 'accident' is a premeditated effort by some corrupted human minds. Once such cowardly heinous crime is the act of terrorism, where in the name of religion (almost always) innocent lives and their dreams are snuffed out in a split second. Until the last decade you could maximize your lifespan by staying healthy, by minding your own business and being lucky enough to be not born into the Gandhi family (Remember Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi). But with the advent of terrorism the rules of the game have all changed. And what is most frightening about this barbaric spineless act is that they are very random in nature and completely unpredictable, as the perpetrator has no specific grudge on the victims. The majority of the victims are just collateral damage and the only mistake they commit is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is as if our destinies should be re-written to account for this new avatar of death ! 

Every time there is a terrorist attack, the first thing that comes to my mind is the huge void left behind by the victims among their family and friends. Their lives are never going to be the same and they have to live with this grief for their entire lifetime. Then I think of all the dreams that the poor souls would have nurtured for a long long time and how they have been shattered so mercilessly in the blink of an eye. Once I get over all this grief,  the question that pops up in my mind is "When will be my turn as a victim?". It might seem very hysterical, but then these attacks don't occur in some distant battlefields or in some highly secured government buildings. They occur in places where an ordinary man like me would hang out with friends or go shopping or just cross by. The very clandestine nature of these attacks make it very difficult for even the most efficient governments to prevent them and hence it would be unrealistic to expect our government to be any better. So as an individual I have taken it upon myself to safeguard my life. On days that are considered auspicious by terrorists like Independence Day, Republic Day and a bunch of other days, I don't venture out to crowded places or use any sort of public transport. And on ordinary days when I am forced to venture out to a shopping mall, my antennas are constantly scanning for ULOs (Unidentified Lying Objects) and suspicious looking men, thereby running the huge risk of losing focus on the lady accompanying me! And the moment I sense an ULO, I tiptoe in a direction completely opposite to the object. It seems like a very selfish act but then I don't want to create chaos and panic just based on my hyper-active senses.

Similarly when I travel by buses, I ensure there are no unclaimed luggages near my vicinity. There was this one time when I was traveling to my native town in a government bus. The bus had made a short stop at an intermediate town and some passengers got down at their destination and some others got down to have refreshments. One of the passenger sitting a few seats ahead of me got down and I saw a bag lying under his seat. Immediately my radar got locked on to that location. It stayed locked for more than ten minutes and suddenly the bus throttled alive with the guy still not returning. I started to sweat profusely and wanted to jump out of the bus before something bad happened. But assessing the speed of the bus and my physical agility, I calmed down and decided to inform the conductor about the unclaimed luggage, all along hoping the bag only had a pair of boxers and some dirty trousers. He was initially hesitant and skeptical about my strange request but as I was persistent he gave in. The moment he came over and saw the bag a big smile broke on his face. It turned out to be his bag ! I felt very embarrassed and at the same time happy, for having done my best to live another day. But when it comes to trains I don't even have the luxury of being alert because my antenna doesn't have the required range and I just keep hoping the karmas of my previous lives will come in handy. And anyways the probability of the top berth falling on my head unable to hold the heavily snoring uncle is much more than an explosion ripping through my compartment.

If the above narrative sounds light-hearted, it is not due to non-cognizance of the gravity of the situation. But rather due to the acceptance of the futility of worrying about something over which I have no iota of control. Well I haven't completely given up and thats why I keep my senses extra sharp when I am out in the public, realizing well this increases my chances of survival only by a very meager amount. Thousands and thousands of innocent men and women have already 'sacrificed' their lives in the war against terrorism and it is more than high time we launched a global concerted effort to cull this menace. Unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, terrorism is a man made disaster borne out his own invention called religion. If the invention seems to cause more problems than provide solutions it serves well for the inventor to do away with it. Until then terrorism is here to stay.