I am safe, for now

But for how long?

Going by the latest set of events to happen in the city, I have no idea where the next blow is coming from or who it will crush in it's wake...

It was only today morning that I watched a cop sweep shards of glass, blood and god-knows-what-else from the middle of a road in Srinagar. Bomb blasts there, not a great way to start the day. Came to office later than usual and got back to work.

Then, in the evening, I was speaking to a friend of mine from Pune, it was nice to get in touch with him after so many years. A school friend, goes back by at least 20 years. It was then that my colleague came bustling in and informed me about the blasts.

I have been glued on to the TV for the past 90 minutes, watching scenes unfold. Watching the stoic victims seated on the platform while others tried to help them. Images of a long maned young man, his face dripping blood... of dead bodies lying on the platform; of someone slapping a man lying on the floor trying in vain to revive him, of body parts strewn across the whole place, of compartments mangled and twisted, of agitated citizens.

Sadly enough, the crowds on camera lamented the total absence of the authorities in the process, and echoing Hindi films, arriving late on the scene.

I wonder if the media really needed to show those gruesome images on TV. I don't know what good they did to anyone.

Terrorist attacks? Underworld? Enemies of India? Does it even matter anymore?

At the end of the day, it's just one human being against another. Retribution for this, revenge for that...that's all people seem to be thinking of. And we shall go far with that philosophy *sarcasm*

Catching the culprits and hanging them won't bring back the dead. It won't wipe away the fear and it certainly won't stop the killings. No. The change has to be far more deep rooted.

Let's not teach our children to discriminate, to hate, to fight. Let's stop buying toys such as guns and such. Let's do away with those computer games which allow people to bash each other up. Let's stop voting for leaders who don't care for the masses. Let's make a beginning today.

Like the protagonists in 'Rang De Basanti' said - "Police mein bharthi honge, military join karenge, IAS banenge, Politics ka hissa ban kar is desh ka sarkar chalayenge"

We need this today and we need it at a global level, if our children and theirs are to see a future worth living in.

The question is not whether it will happen. The question is, when?