Weird coincidences happen in life; last night I saw a Bollywood movie called ‘A Wednesday’, it’s about bomb blasts and the way it terrorises the common man. I loved the movie, it has a powerful message. If you are interested, you could watch the movie with English subtitles.
Being away from home, here in the US, I usually read the latest news online. I am almost 12 hours behind, so my morning news is usually from the past day’s happenings in India. Political banter does not interest me; I like to read about things that directly affect me, a regular common Indian. More often than not, the news is an unhappy one.
The past few months have been really disturbing. I wake up in the morning to read about serial blasts somewhere or the other, killing, terrorising, injuring innocent people. The recent serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, in July this year, had left quite a lot of families decimated. Each time ripping apart our faith in humanity. I have friends and family in both the cities, the first reaction after reading such news is fear and panic. What follows is phone calls to loved ones to check if they and all their acquaintances are safe. Though, I haven’t heard any of my loved ones being injured in any such blasts, I am sure everyone isn’t as lucky. The ones killed and injured must have been someone’s father, mother, sister, brother or a friend. Could have been the sole bread earner of a family, could have been someone’s only child. A bomb does not ask a person their caste, age, sex or creed before it kills. It just destroys.
Two consecutive days in July I woke up to my husband reading out the news about blasts in India. For the following few days, we did not read the news. It was too disturbing to read about such mindless acts of terror early in the morning. Too painful to call, email and enquire about the safety of loved ones. A few days later, several live bombs were recovered in another city, Surat. Luckily, the rest of the days in July and August were mundane, news wise. Today, Saturday the 13th, the Indian Capital is rocked by bomb blasts. Delhi, my home town is targeted this time! My heart is beating so fast, it’s deafening, I can’t hear what my brother-in-law is saying on the phone. Did he just say that another blast is expected in a couple of minutes? A much bigger one, after the multiple terror bombings since six in the evening. The numbers of people injured, killed and affected are still rising.
Think about the mental strain, you are helplessly waiting for the next blast to occur, wondering if you are to escape the blast or be a victim. As I write this sitting here, thousands of miles away from home, I’m hoping that my phone won’t ring again..heard enough bombings for the day, actually for life.
