Nobody is safe

On a personal note, Manchester United are not doing too well in their league and Sachin's not yet got on fire in the ongoing India-England ODI series. I have read that the world economy could do with some Complan, and ofcourse my semester exams have gone badly. (No) thanks to some incessant rain, I have been under house arrest for the past 72 hours (and counting) and what's worse- with frequent power cuts! But trust me, all you and I should really be worried about presently is yesterday's Mumbai terror attacks.

It's probably reached a stage where if there have been no terror attacks an entire month, you check onto the calendar to see if the month is really over. And right royally justified to do so you are, because terror has not only reached Indian shores now but has become a part and parcel of our lives. In the beginning, we were shocked to hear that 'religious crusaders' had actually entered Gandhi-land. Nowadays, we do express shock but are actually just helpless. Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai are important cities to us. But to them, maybe they are just 4 boxes ticked. And that is where the question comes in. Are we all just lambs patiently waiting for our turn? Or, is there still hope?

As a nation of such a length and breadth, there is not really too much that our intelligence can do to deter an intelligent terrorist group. Just google the word 'bomb,' and you will know exactly what I mean. Besides, where much more expensive and sophisticated intelligences abroad have failed miserably, how justified are we to blame our own policemen?

As a total layman, my only ruse would be to get to the root of it. These terrorists are not, by any means, mindless youngsters over-inspired by Counterstrike. They have their wants and grievances, and however unreasonable they may sound to us, it makes perfect sense to them. Sometimes, when a majority group (and I am not getting religious here) has asserted itself for a very long time, then the minority may choose to upset law & order out of sheer frustration. A lot of us believe it is the wrong thing to do, but that hardly helps. As yesterday's attacks proved yet again. Maybe, when our nation-makers sat down to create this marvel called India, they underestimated how difficult unity in diversity would be to achieve. There is no fixed blueprint, but I for one, feel that giving in a bit to these ''aggrieved offenders'' may not be such a bad idea afterall. If the choice is as simple as one between a nation's principles and an entire country's peaceful sleep, then I am pretty clear about which one I would choose.

People talk of 'going soft' on terror. Ridiculous as it may sound, it is not necessarily such a bad thing. If we think being ruthless and iron-handed (nice phrases on paper) is the way to go, and it probably is in the long run, then there are surely no signs of terror attacks stopping in next to no time. What will follow then, is probably a civil war of sorts at the culmination of which peace will be established. But until then, nobody is safe......