a bag that wasnt a bomb ...

An incident that happened on Monday morning during my travel from Mumbai to Pune -

9:15am - Mumbai-Pune Volvo bus halts for its customary 10-15 min stop at Vashi.
9:16am - A dude gets in; places his luggage on the seat in front of me and besides an elderly uncle... then gets off the bus...
9:23am - Uncle is getting restless & anxious with the luggage in the bus and its owner missing ... so are a couple of other people.
9:26am - Uncle gets panicky; gets off the bus; calls the driver & cleaner (who were sipping tea at a stall alongside) and raises alarm ... “arey ek mulga tari aapla bag thevun gela aahe ... daha minute jaale ... kuthe disat nahi toh ... bagha tari .. bomb vomb tar nahi naa??” (A guy has left the bus after leaving his bag in the bus and cant be seen around since the past 10 mins... can it be a bomb?)
9:27am - many people get off the bus to join the commotion (including me)...
9:28am - looking at the hustle bustle, the dude who was about 50 mts away (and who btw was bidding sugary good byes to his girl friend, while waiting for the bus to start) comes rushing in ... so as to retrieve his luggage since he spotted people getting off the bus ... he thought that there was a breakdown or some other problem with the bus ....
9:30am - Everything settled, the bus resumes its journey ... the dude and the uncle have a hearty laugh over it...and I get back to reading “Road to Gandolfo”

This is the fear, that the flurry of terror attacks have created in the psyche of the people here ... I wont get into giving any sermons as to how should we retaliate ... or the terrorists’ point of view .... or HIS role ... or bitch about incompetent government & security measures ... or what is achieved by carnage of innocent lives etc etc ....

A lot has been said, shouted, cried and sighed about all these viewpoints ... the thing which enthused me to put this post up.... was a conversation with a friend who is a US national. We were discussing about the hurricane Ike, safety of her relatives etc and the topic turned to the recent bomb attacks in Delhi... my feeling of helplessness just made me blurt out to her that “at least for Ike you people have all the warnings and alerts ... and can take the precautionary measures.... here in India ... the bomb attacks come uninformed and take hundreds of innocent lives”.... (as an afterthought I realized that it was quite a rude (maybe selfish) comment on my part .... as there has been a lot of emotional and physical stress because of Ike)

Thankfully, she didn’t misunderstand my comment and her reply was pretty queer and left me at loss of words – “That is really sad. I remember when USA was attacked in 2001. I remember feeling so scared and unsure in my own home. At least one thing was a comfort that my own countrymen were not planning these attacks, which is not true for India. Indians themselves are causing the misery for their radical views.”

I could have given many counter arguments.... like not all terrorists are Indians ... there might be other countries involved etc etc ... but come to think of it ... she had got a valid point ... at the end there had to be countrymen involved at some or the other level ...I didn’t have a reply to her .... in fact I was experiencing the same helplessness that one feels when thinking about terror blasts ...

Anyways, one thing that I have pondered for years now ... is why do the terrorists have to kill innocent people to make a statement and get themselves heard??? There can be many other ways which wouldn’t involve loss of life.... and can probably have similar kind of impact ... (I will refrain from showcasing my vicious side by listing the alternatives... well ... yea i do have some wicked grey cells too ... well .... blame the numerous Robert Ludlum novels that I have read for that ... :)). No, friends ... I am in no way trying to support or justify the terrorists’ activities ... no ways, not even an iota of it ... my point is that if there is a group who can go to any length to get their points across .... why not assume a way which would not slay innocent people? This is genuinely a question that pesters me. Any idea?

ciao friends ... and take care !!!
~ hiren

P. S.: I would recommend you all to watch “Mumbai Meri Jaan” ... it’s a movie based on the 26 July train blasts in Mumbai and showcases the aftermath that a terror attack causes in the lives of common man ...

P. P. S: A couple of you have complained about me writing a lot of serious posts of late.... I agree to that and promise to try and get back to humor soon... :)