Gripped By Terror - Part 4

I was watching the news when the first image of one of the terrorists was put up for the first time. It was the picture of a young man, who didn’t look older than 20, in a black T-shirt saying Versace, with a blue backpack. And an AK47. He had what appeared to be a line of blood on his face. And he was smiling. Not even in an evil sinister way. He was just smiling.

It scared me. It scared me because I was just thinking how he could have been my neighbor, or the boy who sat in the row behind me at college. He could have been my best friend’s boy friend. He could have been anybody. Of all the pictures of the terrorists that we have seen, it is surprising that not one of them had the trademark beard and traditional clothes.

The man/boy with the Versace T-shirt featured in nearly every photo taken. He was obviously not the most careful of the lot. I want to know what became of him.

None of them wore masks. Maybe they had no plans of escaping anyway? Maybe they had either planned to die in battle, or were aware and prepared to spend life in jail if they were caught alive. Why else would they not wear masks?

But what sort of indoctrination and brain washing prepares you for death or a life in jail?

I immediately thought of the parents of these young men. Do they know what their sons have done? Its usually a big deal for parents to be called to school even, when their sons have done something stupid like bunk class or get into a fight. But what about when their sons grow up to be terrorists?

Was it them as parents who failed? Or do they believe the same things as their sons? Was it religion who failed them? Was it us, who showed them too little love, for them to think there was any good in the world?

When I saw images of the guns being used, they looked familiar. Then of course I learnt that they were AK47’s. I don’t know anything about defense and arms, but I do know that model number. The news also mentioned that Bazookas were being used by the terrorists.

I was reminded of how I first learnt the word Bazooka. It was more than 5 years ago when we bought our first computer. I had asked some of my neighbors in the building, to give me some computer games. I didn’t care for them, but I thought that’s what everybody did when they had computers- they played computer games on them.

They installed 2 games for me that day (which I never played finally). One was an NBA Basketball game. And the other was this cops and robbers kind of game, where the bad guys had fancy cars and fancy guns. The boy who gave me the game played a few rounds to show me how it worked. And I remember him getting excited when the ‘bazookas’ were used.

That’s the story of how I learnt of bazookas.

I also remember an argument I had with a friend of mine a few months back, about video games. I swore that when I had kids, they were not going to be given those toy guns with the springs inside, that made annoying shooting noises when one pulled the trigger. They were also not going to be allowed to play boy-games that involved shooting and killing. And finally, there would be no watching of wrestling on TV.

My friend disagreed with my point of view. He insisted that there was nothing wrong with these things; he didn’t turn out wrong after all.

That’s not the point. If I had a choice, I would remove the word ‘hate’ and ‘kill’ from the dictionary. That would sadly not solve anything. Hate is in all of us. So is love. We are born with it. We are born into it. But I want for every child in the world, to not know of these evils.

That’s like asking for a dog’s tail to be straight. Its like that story about the man who raised a leopard cub, on vegetarian food all its life, but one day when the cub licked blood off a child’s wound, it knew what it was made for.

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.