That jaded sinking feeling.....

Addressing a cabinet meeting in Delhi, the Home Minister called the Mumbai terror as an act of cowardice. But I just cannot bring myself to agree with him. What is so cowardly about firing in restaurants, hotels, railway stations and taking hostages in naked day light. It is one thing to leave a satchel in a dump with crude bombs, but these daring attacks call into question the very existence of the nation-state that is India. Is this just another phase in the long line of challenges
faced by the country or a defining moment where we confront the question that is now faced us. I hope it is the former, but the magnitude of this issue tells me its latter.

When did India turn into this strange shoot-out gallery. When was the last time the army had to be called into a city to save lives. Growing up in a small town like a Vijayawada, gangsters and crooked politicians existed only in movies and castiesm and communal riots were confined to books. I never had to confront the question of survival. Maybe India was always like this. Maybe viewing childhood through veils of nostalagia makes it more perfect than it was. But no, this cant be the India that I grew up in. It shouldnt be.

When the Marriot bombing took place in Islamabad, I told myself this would never happen in India. Even when bombs went off in Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Delhi, Guwahati, I told myself it was a nameless, faceless enemy who couldnt confront India face to face. But can I take solace in such complacency now? Tommorow politicians will make speeches, the police will arrest a few "ISI-trained" youths, scholars will thrash out editorials on how to tackle security problems, TV channels will have a glee at the sorrow that can be marketed. Then it will all pass. We will overcome the next morning's fear with hope.

But right now, I cant help that jaded sinking feeling.............