The Spirit of Survival

Happily sitting in Mumbai and reveling in the fact that I finally found a perfect medium to pursue my passion about writing and commenting through blogging, I received a call from an ex-colleague, and a competitor of sorts now, who asked me in a very concerned voice where I was and whether my family in Bangalore was okay. I wondered at his concern and sat stunned after he hung up telling me that Bangalore had been rocked by serial blasts. Shortly afterwards I had a deluge of phone calls and text messages from friends and relatives all over to enquire if all of were safe.

The first reactions I had were typically that of a selfish family man. I called home to find out if my wife and parents were at home and whether the kids had returned from the school. Once I established that all were safe, I heaved a sigh of relief. Then the though struck me –how selfish a man can be. I was not in the least bothered at that moment of the possible loss of lives of unknown people, who incidentally may be as important, or more, to their families as the members of my family are to me.

It was obvious that the minor ethnic scuffles that happened a few weeks back were an epilogue to this tragedy. I am sure the security agencies, the police and the political leadership of the state, both in the ruling party and the opposition, could read as much into those incidents as an ordinary mortal like I can but did practically close to nothing to prevent it from happening. You don’t need to gaze in a crystal ball or be an expert criminologist to understand who is behind such dastardly acts. Of course I am not talking of who would have planted these bombs so meticulously and strategically to cause maximum fear but minimal loss. I say minimal not because I disrespect the loss of a few lives as insignificant but because having got the resources they have at their disposal to conduct such an operation, they could easily have planned a much bigger damage. I am talking of people who have planned and Okayed a proposal as cowardly as this. This is a clear nexus between politicians and criminals who have joined hands to destabilize the already stressed economy for their personal gains.

What they may have probably overlooked is that their personal gains may be at the expense of losing the sovereignty of the country and its people by playing into the hands of the divisive forces that conspire against the happiness and the prosperity of this country. Am I being Patriotic? Not really but in times of distress, I am sure such thoughts do get born in every conscious citizen of any country irrespective of their level of education.

How I wish that the political parties that wish to remain or come to power would do so by working hard and sincerely to formulate and implement policies that will ensure that we vote for them because they enabled us to get clean and safe water, uninterrupted power, motorable roads, education to underprivileged, opportunities to practice our ideas and exploit our latent potential than to force us to vote for them because we fear political instability, terror threats and a sense of insecurity.

Tragedies tend to trigger lowest common denominator of common bonding and sense of belonging amongst the human beings. They also appeal to the most basic instinct of the human race – the spirit of survival. Cliché it may be, but I strongly believe that the people of Bangalore will overcome this tragedy, renew their pledge of marching forward to a better tomorrow and cock-a-snook at those rascals who are trying to attack our inherent weakness of love of the lives of our loved ones.