Insecure??

Within minutes of Delhi bomb blasts, I saw sudden changes in the status messages in gtalk of many of my friends. Some of them read “Delhi blasts…….. WTF”, “Another terror attack…….. Are we safe?”, “Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and now Delhi…. What is happening?” etc. Going through the gtalk status messages is my new timepass and it was through them that I came to know about the blasts at the first place. This reflects one thing that people are now better informed and up to date regarding the happenings around them. Some of my friends were however apprehensive about their safety. A conversation on gtalk with one of my friends went like this:

My Friend: thr?

Me: Yeah.

My Friend: Is the flood relief money still being collected?

Me: I don’t know. Ask VS. He was collecting the money…….. :)

My Friend: I want to contribute to the cause. The people must have suffered a lot.

Me: You are most welcome to help. Yeah the people have suffered a lot. But many have shown character. Although there have been some inefficient implementation also.

My Friend: Oh! I will try to contact VS. Have you heard about the Delhi blasts?

Me: Even if I would not have heard, your status message is enough to let everyone know.

My Friend: Oh! Yeah. Shocking na. The terrorists again dodged our intelligence agencies. Those guys are paid for nothing. They can’t even protect our capital.

Me: Yeah it was a big intelligence lapse. Hope they do not repeat the same mistakes again.

My Friend: They will. No one is secure. Today it’s Delhi. Tomorrow it will be this place.

Me: Kolkata?? Nah!!! This is an easy target but no one has bothered to bomb it apart from the bombing at the American Consulate almost a decade back. Relax you will not be bombed.

My Friend: So is the city safe?

Me: No place is safer than other in today’s scenario. If you are concerned with your safety then it is better to stay within the boundaries of this institute. You will not be harmed here………….. J

My Friend: Hey I am not concerned. I was just interested to know about the possibility of an attack in places like this.

Me: :)…… I was not implying anything. So what is the movie that you are watching today?

And the conversation went on. As the content would reveal I had stalled writing this long time back. So why am I starting it all over again? The blasts in Assam have certain relation to it as well as the recent Maoists attempt to blow up Union ministers in Bengal. However it’s the observation during all these days which forced me to complete this post.

Scene 1: A day after the Delhi bomb blasts

At a sprawling mall in Kolkata (City Centre for those who know the place), the security checking was almost non-existent. The city police was either very confident that they had everything under control or were lax to put the attitude mildly. One of my friends beamed when he claimed “I have brought the handycam within the theatre” to which another friend responded “Hey I managed to sneak through a pack of cigarettes and a lighter”. However the best came from another friend who said “Now someone will say that I have managed to sneak in a bomb under their nose”. You know what I mean to say.

Scene 2: At my relative’s house

My aunt was giving strict orders to my cousin not to move out in Delhi when he is there. He was travelling back to his home for Diwali and had Delhi as a stoppage. “Delhi is no longer safe” she said. When I tried to reason with her (on request from my cousin who wanted to move out and have some fun in Delhi) she said “What if a bomb explodes and something happens. You never know.”

Scene 3: On the day of Assam bomb blasts

We had a party in the night of the blasts and did not know about it then. But on our way back we did not find any security checks. The areas we were covering were one of the most posh localities of Kolkata. The next morning we went out for a trip outside the city and again to our surprise we did not meet any security checks.

Scene 4: A day after the bomb blast by Maoists in Bengal

My friend said that even we are not secure in Bengal. He has put on hold his plans to visit some adjoining places during the break we have got.

What I want to portray through these incidents is that these acts of terror on our country are not only attempting to destroy the beautiful fabric of our country but also targeting the way we lead our life. These are attempts to instill fear in the common man and change his way of thinking so that he may turn into a slave in his own free country. Thus to stop these acts of terror is not only a priority on the grounds of saving the lives of our citizens but also a priority in order to save the morale of the entire country. This country is already burning under the vested interests of some individual/groups which are straining the concept of India on the basis of ‘regions’, ‘religion’, ‘castes’ etc. At this moment we do not need other morale dampeners like the feeling of insecurity for our life in our own land. Naseeruddin Shah portrayed this emotion well in ‘A Wednesday’. So it’s time that the government, intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies smoothen their functioning to provide a safer neighbourhood to the citizens of our country.On our part we should deny these terrorists any moment of rejoice by carrying out our activities as usual. We are not the ones to be bogged down by the feeble attempts of some random psychos.

P.S: I wish we had superheroes in real life too. It would have been fun watching them wipe out the culprits from the society.