On My All Fours

The very first images of ajmal kasab and the other terrorists gave me a cold sweat. It is one year to the dastardly act of terrorism that shook India. But even now the image of ajmal kasab in his black t-shirt and cargo pants, a haversack on his back and preparing to fire with his AK 47, cooks up a mix of emotions. And you say to yourself this is what fear looks like. Fear doesn’t mean you are a coward. This is not the kind of fear that you experience as you are about to leap in bungee jumping, or you prepare to rappel down a mountain cliff. That is more primal kind of fear. Man has known that kind of fear for hundreds of years now. Even when man was not man yet.

This is a new kind of fear. Man’s ingenuity really knows no boundaries. If this is where evolution is going, I would rather humankind stops evolving. Or better still, I would be happy enough to go down on my all fours again. I would rather die finding food or a mate, than for some kind of false group-identity that man has created and continues to fool himself with.

And after every such blood shed, all we can muster to say is terrorism lost- we won. We won?? Pardon me. We lost more than 170 innocent lives to mindless terror on 26/11. How can we win? How can any body win in this mindlessness? Reopening our hotels and shops, or travelling by the local the day after bomb blasts is not victory. It is merely staying honest and dedicated to our vocations and daily chores at best, and a meek surrender to life’s mundane helplessness at worst.

That misplaced feeling of victory and ‘resilience’ apart; we are as much sitting ducks today, as we were a year ago. What happened on 26/11 a year ago is a shameful, shocking and frightening reflection on the state of preparedness of our internal security set up. And this when we had Mumbai Police in action- probably the best in the country. No doubt we witnessed instances of exemplary courage by Mumbai police. Some brave men lying down their lives in the line of duty – but the question is, was it needed? When kasab and abu ismail were on the loose near CST and Cama hospital, what kind of professional competence does it reflect as three senior police officers got killed? This, when the police had a chance to kill them in the premises of Cama hospital itself where they had been holed up for almost 45 minutes. Please, let us have martyrs for far-far bigger causes, and not for tactical errors. Please let us not loose some of our fine men in uniform to utter lack of preparedness in future.

So as we observe the one year anniversary of Mumbai attacks, let’s question our own existence. Let’s question what right does a trigger happy, illiterate street urchin – who probably hasn’t used a branded toothpaste in his life – have, to snuff out innocent lives from this earth. The next time any such cannibal walks with a piece of molded metal in his hand, let’s question what preparedness do we have to shoot him in his temple before he gets to pull the trigger? What preparedness – and eagerness really - do we have to tell him that it’s your existence that indeed is a burden on this earth, and not us.