Mumbai - 26th November

Inspite of sitting in Pune, I felt feverish watching the the various channels that telecasted live how the country was under attack. I wore "jutis" over my formals to office on Thursday and realized it only when I reached office. I could not get myself off the TV.

Now that the cruel drama is over, a few thoughts

While links have been traced back to well-known terrorist out-fits and the security system is being questioned, none of this would have been possible without support from within. These people who staged the dance of death and fear are probably not Indian citizens. They came in from some country, fed with fanatic ideologies, dodged a loose system and dared the people of this country by just driving around the city and shooting indiscriminately at people and ofcourse feeling some amount of pride in what they are doing. I am wondering if any citizens of this country helped stage this terror in their very own city and country. Do we have a Traitor among us? Whatever strata of the system one is, even if you are a fisherman or a minister, even if your income is Rs 10 a day or 10L a day, at no cost can you betray your country. Neither poverty nor joblessness, neither religious ideologies nor fanaticism can justify this betrayal. We might have a hundred problems within, we might not be the best example of a secular country but we will unite & stand together against any attack from outside.

Finally what do you expect people to do after an attack. People will get back to normalcy, that is life. One can not remain holed up in fear. Every life has a date when the curtains will fall and there is a fate and whatever you do, where ever you
go you meet it. With that attitude we go about our day today.

The other important thing a gentleman(name I can not recollect) on TimesNow brought up was,

While we are questioning the politicians and the security of this country, we as the people of this nation also play a very important part by just keeping our eyes and ears open to anything unusual. After 9/11, a colleague of mine in US, who had visited the twin towers just a week before the disaster, sent his new york trip pictures to be developed to a studio. He requested an enlarged picture of the twin tower snap he had taken. The studio guys reported it immediately. In a matter of hours he had cops standing at his door asking him details about why and where. Also I had read in the local newspapers of how an American couple sitting right behind a south Indian actress on a flight to new york alerted the crew of their suspicious behaviour. The Indian actress was having an animated discussion with her parents in her native language. On landing the actress and the crew were escorted by the cops for interrogation. We laughed about it when we read about it but today that level of involvement of normal citizens is what we lack. We, the normal citizens are so consumed by ourselves, we just don't care what goes on around us. Anything that involves the cops is better kept at bay. It is about time we stop speculating and take on our jobs of a alert citizen more seriously.

In a country of a billion people, if even one quarter of it are alert, eyes and ears open, ready to dare and challenge, there is no way a handful of bas&*%$# could even dare plot this terror here.