November 29, 2008

Three

Three stray thoughts about terror in my city, while I work on putting together some other writing.

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"[T]he most tragic thing is that for the first time ever they are targeting big-time foreigners and five star hotels. ... There have been a lot of bomb blasts in India and they normally target marketplaces and the poorer society."

Chloe Papazahariakis from Australia, about to be married to an Indian in Bombay, quoted in MidDay, November 27 2008.

I don't know, Chloe, but it was pretty tragic before too.

Update: Chloe's thoughts are available, in full, here.

***

Part of an SMS that's making the rounds (in different versions, I've already got it three times) -- offered verbatim:

Where is Raj Thackeray's "brave" Sena? Raj, why did you not send them to fight the terrorists, the REAL outsiders? If they wanted to show their capabilities then they should have taken on the outsiders instead of targetting helpless cabbies and shop owners.

Indeed.

***

"My powers of empathy, my ability to reach into another's heart, cannot penetrate the blank stares of those who would murder innocents with such serene satisfaction."

Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father.

Worth a thought, now and always.

7 comments:

km said...

Big-time foreigners

Say what?

Anonymous said...

While the working classes were being bombed in markets, bus stops and elsewhere, the chattering classes, high on fine scotch, were reeling off 'high principled' editorials, filming cross-over flicks, scorching the ramps and what not; thinking that are eternally safe in their nests. Well...terrorists seem to have finally broken the class barrier. Do the 'posh people' have it in them to take a stand?.. I don't think so

Anonymous said...

@ anonymous : when will we realize that venom over these divisions we carry in our heads is precisely what contributes to men with blank stares pumping bullets at innocents? Whether at CST or at the Taj..or elsewhere.


Z

Anonymous said...

Pretty tragic before, indeed. Us small-time foreigners are all watching with you.
Take care,
-Su and Ajay

Dilip D'Souza said...

Thank you Zap. Eloquently and succinctly said.

And Su and Ajay, thanks too. Will write separately.

Anonymous said...

Ah....Mr.Zap...this is not venom but a deep sense of outrage from a 'son of the soil'; that we are not able to come set aside our differences and make a point like the what the genuine liberals did in Gettysburg, in the smoky trenches of Somme, Jallianwallah Bagh and salt fields of Porbander to name a few; some of these battlefileds involved weapons of war while others were fought with ideas.

The question is how do we deal with the lot that has caused mayhem in revent times?..with weapons of war or with ideas..

If this continues, very soon there may not be an India to defend and you and me will be thrown to the wolves...that's why you and me will have to take a stand.

Ah..well...Google brought me here...Dilip has told me off..so off I go....

Dilip D'Souza said...

Anonymous, I have by no means told you off. Please stay. Come back.

But more and more, I think perhaps the lesson of this tragedy can be this much: let's challenge those fences in our minds. Me, you, all of us.