I don’t know why, but whenever a disaster of some sort occurs, be it man-made or god-made or whatever, the first thing that comes to a common inquisitor’s mind is, “Oh god! What’s the death count?” Well, the ‘Oh, god!’ part is an exercise, of course, just to make sure you aren’t viewed as someone who doesn’t care for the people… but the real interest, or whatever you can call it, lies with a pretty little thing called ‘statistics’.
I had a false notion that only people from Economic backgrounds were interested in statistics. But hell was I wrong! Every goddamn person is interested in statistics, and the first thing they care about (Didn’t say the only thing) is the statistics. How many people died? And a ratio in your head would determine the number of times you nod your head in dismay.
You know why these people can strike like this? It’s because of our attitude! Do we really give a damn to what happens outside our little world? Ya, sure we feel bad for a while when we come across those newspaper articles and the news channels bringing up stray, touching and positively nerve-wracking stories about people and their losses, the tear-jerking side of things. And somewhere, being the cynical being that I am, I can’t help but see the noticeable increase in ads in those TV channels… and in my twisted imagination, maybe I can even picture the editor of some channel smiling to him/herself… after all, this was a change as far as breaking news was concerned… this was some real breaking news!
It happens everyday somewhere in the world. All you need to do is switch on the TV or get on the internet and you will be showered with facts and statistics and the world’s reaction to those events! It happens everyday in the Middle Eastern nations, places like Pakistan, and I guess I will now have to include my country in the list as well. After the capital, the pink city and several places big and small, the city of ‘so-called’ dreams getting a rude reality check doesn’t seem to be a petty co-incidence. Maybe that man in that movie was right, some people don’t have any agenda, they like to do what they do… they don’t do it for money, they don’t do it for fucking religion, they don’t do it for their ‘people’, they do it coz they like to immerse a whole nation in a sea-full of fear… they have no other agenda. Ya, reasons do form a part of it… after all, they can’t tell the world they’re raving fucking lunatics, can they? So they have mythical reasons. And the media gets a month’s fodder of fucking discussions and post-mortems to do! Its sickening…
So who is to blame?? For the people who died? For the people who lost, maybe… the person they cared for the most in this world… in fact, I have so many relatives residing in and around Mumbai, and god forbid, I could easily have been in the ‘people who lost’ list! Hell, even with the allegation and hope arising out of the statement that, ‘Calcutta is where the terrorists plan stuff from, so they won’t attack their own home!’, for some reason (since I am a pessimist by nature, I guess) I can’t believe that to be true, and so, I fear that maybe one day, even my name may turn up on that casualty list, or worse, one of my near ones… and for this reason, I think I’m entitled to the fact… and I really think this is the time to pinpoint who may be responsible for whatever’s going on: simply coz a week from now, at least those of us who aren’t directly affected, will forget about the incident… Like we forgot Jaipur & Delhi… and those who’re affected will be too grieved to do anything! So its imperative that we do some digging now… or else, we’ll be lost in our own lives to care for those who lost theirs!
But who is to blame? I can only see a handful to blame who’re taking advantage of the situation… but who can be blamed for this situation itself? Is it the intelligence? Maybe, they should probably do a better job! Is it the politicians, who’re taking the tax-payer’s money and wasting it on their paunch? Or is it the people (like me)… who aren’t vigilant enough and have the retentive power of a Goldfish? Maybe it’s all of them…
I don’t know! I know it’s the terrorists, but they look like humans as well… how to know who’s a terrorist and who’s not??
Signing Off,
-Jagannath (Jesse)
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