13th September - It was a lazy Saturday night & I had planned on doing well nothing. A pizza, a movie, an hour of button mashing with Burnout Legends. Or some UFC fights. Or an episode of SHIELD. Listening to some B.B. King. Not groundbreaking plans but enough to satisfy a worn-out-from-a-long-week guy. Until I got a call asking me if I had heard about the blasts in Delhi.
With NDTV (one of India’s leading English news channels) being based out of Delhi, they were probably the first ones on the spot and had disturbing footage of people being carried away from the sites. The 5 bombs that exploded in Karol Bagh, Connaught Place, Greater Kailash-I and Barakhamba Road within a span of 25 minutes took 30 lives & injured over 90 people. These are places where a lot of shopping goes on especially on weekends. What’s scary is that these were the places that I used to frequent when I was in Delhi last year. Watching people carrying bodies to ambulances with blood pouring from them was something that made me shudder. And then I realized that could’ve been me. I could’ve been a nameless person being carried away on national news which thousands of people watch their televisions in disbelief. It could’ve been any one of my friends who are from Delhi or who are working in Delhi.
Did the terrorists succeed in instilling terror in all of us that evening? Yes they did. Will we live in the shadow of the bomb blasts that are occurring with alarming frequency across India? Yes we will. But will we give up hope and look at the TV and wonder how could it happen to us, why us? Nope. Will we just stay cooped up in our homes afraid of what will happen to us if we step out? No we won’t. We Indians are a strong bunch. Resolute. It’s going to take more than bombs and threat mails to dislodge us. Cause in India, whatever happens, the show must go on. And that’s what makes us so special.
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