It is uncanny how you come face-to-face in recent times with scenarios that might have taken place in the wildest of your imagination or only in corny pseudo-techie Hollywood and Bollywood movies. The past and the future has caught up with the present. Terror and fear are emotions you encounter every other day. Suprise large-scale attacks are the way of life now.
As my friend Julie says, pirates were what you heard of and had relegated to the recesses of your mind as a whimsical notion of the olden ages. The Somali pirates, unequipped with technology and bogged down with poverty, have revived the art that had since transformed into a romantic profession with films such as Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp might have been adorable as Captain Jack Sparrow. But the lives lost and ships held hostage in the Gulf Seas remind us that ages ago, pirates marauded ships and its occupants for wealth. A lost legend has become a very real risk potential.
This is the 21st century. Terror attacks were something that happened a long, long way away from you. Globalization has brought terror closer to you. The names of places you see screaming at you from television news screens and newspaper headlines are places you regularly visit, have randomly passed through or used to live in. Security measures at airports and malls are something we take for granted. No one ever consciously thought that security at high-end places could be breached so easily. No one ever thought about it, period.
But someone somewhere in the world did think of it and researched enough to figure out that the safety at posh places are over-rated. The Taj, Oberoi and Trident Hotels were attacked in Mumbai on Nov 26th 2008. Simultaneously, the Cama and GM Hospitals were also invaded. Nariman House was captured. There were blasts at different locations throughout South Mumbai including the age-old Victoria Terminus a.k.a the Chatrapati Sivaji Terminus Railway Station. Terrorists randomly fired at passersby on the roads. They had entered the city by sea all the way from Pakistan.
They knew what we did not know. They cared enough about what we never paid a second though to, albeit to disastrous consequences. How did a gang laden with explosives come all those miles undetected and unsuspected? How did they breach the security in place at five-star hotels? How could they have had the gall to roam around the city, firing randomly and determinedly?
How?
This is the question on everyone's heads.
What about the WHY?
Power games and extremism have evolving and growing rapidly in this New Age of liberalism.
Most importantly,
What Now?
Do I have to steer clear of five-star hotels now? Should I stop my loved ones from visiting places that might be attacked? Will I have to duck whenever I see a vehicle speeding along the road? Should I always be on edge, wondering the place I am at is the next on the hit-list of the terrorists? Ought I blame the complacency of the security agencies in the country? Will praying for new stringent safety regulations suffice? Will being prepared make me a suspicious wreck unable to enjoy peace anymore? Can I make myself go along, leading a normal life?
Mumbaikars are renowned for their spirit that has never been broken by any terror attacks on their beloved Bombay. But there is a limit for tolerance and acceptance. Will this prove to be the last thread holding the fragile future of India's commercial capital?
I pray not. I pray that this never happens again anywhere in the world. I pray that the terrorists are defeated so badly that no other anti-social element will even contemplate the idea.
If only I could turn a deaf ear to the voice that incessantly whispers within me..."It is too late"...
But then again, another voice replies softly..."There is always hope for the better. "
May the world wake up on time so that they can sleep in peace..Ameen..
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