Monday, 01 December 2008

• This glass is half empty

  There are a few things I pride myself on more than others. "Problem-solving" is one of them. I repeatedly kid with co-workers as to how they don't have 'problem-solving attitudes'. Loosely translated, this means that when faced with a problem - I seek to very quickly come up with a solution. 90% of those solutions are inaccurate. But I seek more comfort than having solved a problem wrongly than having it lingering in my mind.

  How do we counter terrorism in India is one of these nagging problems. Every quick fix seems to have its flaws. We could elect the right-wingers, we could form the central agencies and we could form NGOs and candle-light vigil-blogging-chain mailing-communities. All of this will be as impotent in tackling terrorism as they have been so far.

  In my mind, this is a battle we have already lost. Because the problems keeps compounding and there seems to be no clear solution. We might have heroically killed the 10 terrorists in Mumbai but they have left us with something far shallower than the halls of the hotels they stormed. Its a feeling of complete helplessness. A feeling of having been vanquished.

  Every day now from today to when I'm blown to smithereens by random fidayeen fire (that seems inevitable right now) , I will spend waiting and watching for this untimely end to come. At my office, at the airport, at a shopping mall or in my car. In India or abroad.

  I know this was not a handiwork of the 'foreign hand' which we have come to depend on for receiving blame for such monstrosities. It was each one of us. Who watched and tolerated and moved on while people died. In trains, in bazaars, on icy glaciers, in their huts, in their homes, in their offices, in aeroplanes. And now they came and attacked us while we were sipping our beer discussing the latest movies which we just saw.

  To anyone who is reading this. I kid you not. Do not lead yourself into believing that this was the last straw. This pretty much was the death knell. Spend whatever little life you have left trying to enjoy it........

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