Wednesday 26 November 2008

Gripped By Terror - Part 6

Remember when I said that I had thought that my friend’s friend’s friend was the closest I had come to being affected by terrorism?

Listen to this. I have another friend who has all her family in Mumbai, living opposite and behind one of the 11 sites of attack. They saw the place nearby catch on fire. They saw everything. The lights were off in their buildings. The force of the impact shook the entire structure causing the windows to shatter. One of their neighbors, a young married couple, panicked that their building wasn’t strong enough. So they decided to make a quick dash to the next building. They were shot dead. Both of them. Their bodies were lying in the street for around 2 hours. Nobody could leave their homes to drag the bodies to safety. And the ambulances were busy with all the chaos. She also had 2 other incidents that had happier endings- another family friend of hers was supposed to be working at the Taj on That Night. His shift was changed at the last minute. Further, one of her relatives was to arrive at CST That Day. Her trip was cancelled.

This is what is termed as ‘mindless killing.’ This is why I asked why terrorists not just killed innocent people, but also randomly.

I’m still trying to imagine what kind of doctrines these people are fed, in order to become this numb. Visualize this: the terrorists see a target in front of them. They take aim. They shoot. They watch the person fall dead. They shoot people on their left and right. They see dead bodies all around them. They walk through blood, step over bodies. Yet they kill some more. And they have peace in their minds, that they are doing the right thing.

I can only say that they see these things, but they don’t really see these things.

So how exactly do we root out terrorism?

In spite of all the hope and faith I have, some practical fibre in me tells me that this is something that will never leave us completely. Its like these microorganisms that are said to be immortal, because nothing can kill them.

Its like a horror movie, where you slice it once in the head, and 2 new ones appear.

As long as there is one left, there will be another.

So lets meet over coffee sometime.

And talk about how we are going to deal with this

On religion once again.

Its times like these that disillusion a lot of people, with regards to religion and faith. They ask where God is in all this.

Allow me to tell you what Mahesh Bhatt said.

“Don’t expect your gods and goddesses to come down and sort this out for us. We are the architects of this destruction.”

Doesn’t that make sense?

A far cry from ‘heaven being a place on earth’, like the Bangles felt it was.

One of my friends had on her Facebook status, that she is hoping for justice.

Justice? That word has lost all its meaning. This is not a fair fight. When innocent civilians have guns held to their heads, as a barter, that is not a fair fight.

According to the traditions of warfare, one never attacks an unarmed opponent. And one never attacks when the opponent is sleeping. Those were the good old days of chivalry and honor.. and justice.

Unless you are willing to wait for judgment day, there will be no justice. So, hold your peace.

Why is this happening to us?

This is not the kind of philosophy I would like to give a grieving person, or probably receive when I am grieving. But here’s what I think:

Know how they say ‘when you smile the world smiles with you, but when you frown, you frown alone’? Apparently this is not so. In fact the world doesn’t always smile with you when you are smiling, because the sight of someone else happy and successful burns them up. On the other hand, it is during times of grief that our hearts melt for each other. We make chicken soup for a person we don’t like just because we are good people deep down inside.

There’s a particular medical condition that some people are born with, in which, they cannot feel pain. You can put staples in their hand, or pluck out each strand of hair from their head, but they won’t feel a thing. Lucky for them you say? Not so. These people are at the disadvantage of not knowing if their body is burning or if they have lost a limb, because of this very same wolf in sheep’s clothing. And by the time they do realize it, it might be too late.

Pain is a necessary evil.

Times of happiness do not make humanity come together. Times of sadness do. Laughs, cries and music have no language just like terrorism has no religion.

To end, I want to say this.

Please love your neighbors more. He might just be a terrorist, in need of some love, and in need of someone to tell him the world’s not such a bad place.

I am praying for the terrorists. I’m praying for the world tonight.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uhm..hey its too difficult to read in red.I can't see anything:P

BluE M@g!c said...

let me tell u what India has to do
this clearly all our fault
WE NEED TO VOTE FOR RESPONSIBLE POLITICIANS and believe me or not that's the first step. All the poor villagers are bribed to vote, they don't know about India's political stature and nor would they care as long as they get some money in their hands to feel, we cannot blame them, we must HELP THEM. They'll probably not know about these attacks for the rest of their lives!!!
STUDENTS and WELL READ citizens must get off from their couches and stop saying- not him again i wanted that person to win i wanted this person to win-if u wanted that person..get up and GO VOTE. all children in schools and colleges above 18yrs must be dragged to polling booths to vote for responsible politicians. We must make sure our friends our family everyone is doing this. We can take this step now, its all in our hands, its all in your hands!!!!!
Reach your friends tell them, use their help, gather people and go vote
EVERY CAUSE HAS ITS SUPPORTERS-its false to say that no one is willing to do it. DO IT NOW!!

kicking.and.screaming said...

Your absolutely right Kartik.
I said the same thing on a Facebook community and was argued.

btw- this be Mathur?

BluE M@g!c said...

yes man its me
YO MAN!!

BluE M@g!c said...

PLUS
our goddamn politicians should not pay 6 crores to cricketers for hitting 6 sixes, that money must go for charitable or defense uses.

MOST IMPORTANTLY i have noted, im sure u all have celebrity role models, well im going to ask a simple question
--are they still your role models???
-none of them showed up at the funerals of the police officers who lost their lives. I can understand that most of them stayed at home during the attacks due to obvious reasons EXCEPT FOR JAVED JAFFERY AND MAHESH BUTT, other than that none of them came.
They talk abt not using pirated discs, well from now on , whenever i have to use a hindi film i going to see to that i buy a fake 100Rs cd or download it, their not worth more than that......i am ashamed of our celebrities all of them sat at home, i thought we had a bunch of sensible celebrities in our country.. in my eyes there are none but 2 now.

Anonymous said...

Hey...Amazing blog.
I watched Mahesh Bhatt and Shoba De talk on NDTV too.

Kartik is right. Indians should vote for their leaders. Not stoopid randomn partys just electing people they can corrupt. Its corruption in the government that also plays a role in all this. If you go down to the causes, you'll find this as one of the underlying causes.

We as the future generation of India should do something. Keep discussing this. We can makes a difference. Most of all, as that woman on NDTV discussed, we should have a particular organisation that makes the decisions in times like these. Not too many people, such as the police and the firemen.

I noticed this, as a BBC reporter was talking, a policeman was STARING AT THE CAMERA instead of doing his work. I MEAN IT..Literally just grinning at the camera. I was mad. I mean thats just so stoopid. (OK i went out of topic but come on..)

On the whole - i think the mumbai police and firemen dint do much - It was the army, the staff of the hotels and the people of mumbai that helped. They are the ones that i feel should be praised and fed ladoos by these dirty politicians hands. What also angered me was that they said that the politicians were united. PUH - LEASE - LIKE WE CARE. How about they come and give a hand to the medics attending the injured instead of flashing a 1000 RS at the poor mumbaikars who have just lost families.

Mumbai is angry and Enough is Enough. These are the two slogans that were repeated constantly on the news. But lets hope that the everyone is angry enough to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

kicking.and.screaming said...

Theres a hell lot that needs to be done. im so glad for us who are aware.. and more importantly.. care.

apparently theres gonna b a screaming session in Mumbai in a couple of days.. to ask the politics to hear us.

BluE M@g!c said...

hey man very sadly we lost our bravest fighters and most important police officers due to a lack of protection, apparently after some research the bullet proof vests used are not of KEVLAR material, that's the good stuff, unfortunately we didn't have it, the black cats had it but they weren't there that time.
Some of them went bare chested, they were too vulnerable.

Funds are being provided to purchase military equipment but they aren't used efficiently, some of the money is falling into the pockets of...you know who...
it all leaves us with one pin pointed problem...CORRUPTION

Anonymous said...

Its brilliant !!..Also its nice to know sum1 actually took time out to write all this amid hectic exams..& Anoo..,u do remind me of Barkha Dutt sumtimes..maybe this is why...
keep up the good work..
yeah mr.mathur...ur rite..i can only pray tht can happen..ie
the day corruption ends...which seems far away frm actully happenin.
Mischa

Anonymous said...

Extremely well written article. I found the link on the facebook group and I've replied there as well.

I completely agree with the earlier comment by "kartik" that we need to vote for responsible politicians. People don't vote these days because they feel that their votes don't matter. They feel that the number of votes of uneducated and ill informed people vastly outnumbers their own and that whether or not they vote, their opinion is not going to have any effect.

We need to take initiative to vote and get everyone we know to make informed decisions and let their voices be heard. At the same time, I believe that in a way these people are right in feeling that the votes of the ill informed outnumber them greatly. The biggest need is for someone who believes in the principles of peace that we wish for to actually take up the political reins of the country. And for that to happen we need to take responsibility, take action and create positive change to make India "Shine".

BluE M@g!c said...

thank you. We all need to help out each other now. No one can be too busy for their country

BluE M@g!c said...

i think anoo deserves all the credit she always makes an initiative. good work

kicking.and.screaming said...

@KARTIK

in response to what you said earlier about celebrity action..

how much are celebrities actually accountable for? theyre in this business for themselves arent they? what responsibility do they actually have to care?
just because theyre famous, doesnt make them good people.

its our fault for worshiping them so much.

i rmbr a debate about this very issue on NDTV along time back.. maybe ill blog about it :| !

Anonymous said...

i wnted 2 just chnge the part bout the person hu ws affected. anoo this is actuali the truth we found out bout it later. dey were a old couple n dey were in another bldg n dey looked out the window 2 c if deir house ws ok n dey gt shot. the husband died on the spot bt the women may have been saved if the ambulance had arrived.

BluE M@g!c said...

u should actually because alot have ppl have role models who they follow they do exactly as they tell them to do, they're like gods.plz do blog abt it.