War and Peace

On the night of November 26th I was in Amritsar with my sister and brother-in-law. Although we had spent considerable time at the Golden Temple during the day, I decided to go back later that night. There weren’t too many people at that hour and the experience was completely different from the previous one, when a much larger crowd of devotees and tourists were at this remarkable site. I felt at peace mesmerized by the sight of the temple amidst the calmness of the lake that it sits on. The temple is surrounded by marvels of architecture with entrances on all sides signifying the importance of acceptance and openness. It’s said that one cannot visit the Golden Temple until one receives a bulava or an invitation from the Almighty and I felt truly blessed to have been on His invitee list.

In another part of the country, at exactly the time that I was feeling so good about being alive, terror had begun striking. The streets of South Mumbai were being riddled with bullets, a very uncommon occurrence (at least I don’t ever remember it happening previously but what do I know?). Although I was alarmed when I watched the news later that night in my hotel room, I eventually went to bed dismissing the entire incident as being no more than a gang war.

The morning news was of a completely different nature by which time the terrorists had taken over prestigious hotels in the heart of the city and a building that housed Israeli nationals, having killed many and holding others hostage. The entire experience of watching it on television was surreal. Like a bad action movie, poorly edited and much too long. Except the people in the midst of it were real and not actors. Was this the ultimate reality show in extremely bad taste?

In a world population of approximately 6.7 billion we have a miniscule percentage of terrorists that are creating havoc. Why is it that 99.99999% of ‘us’ are not able to get rid of .00001% of ‘them’? Why are the political agendas stronger than safety agendas? Why is it that we have to spend billions to incorporate security measures when we could spend a lot less to terrorize and finish them? What is it going to take? Isn't this really enough?

Are we going to light a candle, wear white for a day, participate in a protest rally and go back to our seemingly unmemorable lives, struggling to survive, saving to make the next big purchase, wanting a meal in the most talked about restaurant-of-the-week and wondering (fleetingly) if the subway/mall/theatre that we’re in could blow up at any time?

At this point I have no great ideas as to what we can do as individuals. What I do know is that we must not forget that terrorism is a part of our lives until terrorism is eliminated. We must voice our anger, our need for safety, demand the implementation of security measures and very importantly look out for each other as good human beings. When I read about the employees of the Taj and Oberoi who gave up their lives to protect their customers, it completely amazed me. In such a situation one would think that they would have tried to protect themselves first but instead these were unarmed servers, chefs, administrative staff who put the lives of their customers first. It’s only thanks to such heroes that we still have faith in humanity.

The terrorist attacks of November 26th are being called India’s 9/11. Do we need a label for the incident? I’m fine with a label as long as we take it as seriously as 9/11 was taken by the US. As Indians, most of us are cynical about what we should expect from our political system. However, we have to be resilient and ensure that this isn’t ‘just another attack’. Enough IS enough. Make your voices heard. Fight the evil.

Peace must take over.