One Year after the Blasts!

Its one year since two blasts - one in my city Delhi, and another in my line of work, Investment Banking. Last year, Delhi was shocked with multiple blasts, and Lehman went bankrupt, sending multiple shock waves and panic to the industry!

How we have cope up so far in last one year after these incident? The world economy went into recession, and now on the recovery path. Governments had to shell out much more money to banks in order to survive the economical breakdown. Had the Lehman was saved with Government funding, things could have been much better. But not all is lost, and it help reducing the overspending of the Banks. Now, Banks across the world are cautious about how and where to spend money.

Delhi Blast is nothing serious, the city was back in action from the very next day, and completely on the track in few days. They call it "Spirit of Delhi" or whatever, but I call it necessity of the common person to come back and start working, or their family will not be able to meet the ends. So, its not that "spirit" but the need which drive people out of the fear and came back to normal life. And with lots of other terrorist activities happening, Delhi Blast was not that important.

Those who lost their loved ones, I am very sorry for their loss, and sorry that I am writing this incident as not important enough to be remembered or to be dealt with. But it is not my personal opinion, it is the way we, as a nation, take any such incident! We are so used to terrorist activities, we just know how to react for a day, and also we know how to forget about it in one-two days (depending on casualties). Our government blames Pakistan for everything, and continue to function as it is. Do you think Pakistan is to be blamed for all the terrorist activities?

This brings another question, why blame Pakistan for all the terrorist activities? Even if there are training camps in Pakistan, and funding comes from there, can't we see that its our own people who help terrorists? If we take terrorism as a serious problem, why can't we stop anyone from crossing the border with guns and explosives? Someone told me that being such a long boarder, it is not possible to monitor and stop terrorists crossing the boarder. I tell them, if this is your biggest problem today, then there is nothing "not possible", and put all your resources into it. You may have to spend 10 times more than today, spend it! We are talking about handling the biggest problem of the nation! Spend every penny on it from the budget, and do it! There is no excuse for it. You got to take care of it! But, nah, its not that important! We have to build infrastructure for Commonwealth games next year, there are lots of other stuff needs to be done. Some people loosing their life due to terrorists? That's fine, we have enough population and loss of few individual does not have any significant impact on the bigger scale! Our Government don't think about the feelings of those who lost and will loose loved ones in all such terrorist activities. Ask them if spending on stopping terrorists is more important or commonwealth game, only if you don't yourself know the obvious answer.

But in India, we continue to live under terrorist threats, and we are now used to it. I don't have any hope for getting rid of this fear anytime soon. This is my destiny, and the future life I am giving to my children! This is the price for being an Indian. I had the option of settling down in Singapore, and many of my friends are there for good, not coming back to India. One of them even went out to get Singapore passport, after surrendering Indian passport. He is a Singaporean now. But I loved my country, and always wanted to come back. My parents never wanted me to settle abroad, and never even visited me while I was out of country. That prompted me to come back, and find my place here in my own country. I knew that I am not just giving up a comfortable life in Singapore, where you don't have to struggle for basic necessities like Water, fuel, electricity etc, but I am also giving up the security feeling I had there. We used to take a walk in weekend late at night, like post midnight, on the road/park, and never even thought of getting mugged. My wife could hire a cab, and go to an unknown area, just having the address with her, and the cab driver will take her to the destination, no chance of any harassment from cab drivers or any of the locals. I was ready to adjust on these, but terrorism is not something I was ready for. Its not that I am now thinking that I should not have come back, but its the feeling of being a target all the time. Its like I am a small bug, and can be killed anytime without me knowing about it. We all Indians are like that, even if we don't agree, but in actual, we all are bugs/mosquitoes/ants and anytime anyone can kill us. Nothing can change this feeling, and I have to live with it.

Those who know me personally, may think that I don't look like so pessimist or in fear all the time. Then why am I writing like I am? Well, I am what I am, and I don't stop living because of fear of death! So, I enjoy my day, have fun with kids, but beneath, I know that its not going to go long, and my tern will have to come some day! Not the normal life and death turn, but someday, I can be a name in the victim list of some blasts somewhere. I can't stop going out, visiting different cities, so I am a potential victim, and can be a target for being an Indian.