Confession: I think I'm finally in love.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=V_0qly5ZZl4&feature=related

Pune wakes up to Bombay's darknight

Yesterday in Pune....

Women in silks, labels and warpaint, men in designer track gear....protesting against corruption and 'mourning' Mumbai's night of terror. More like laughing, catching up...ambling up and down about 1/10th of Pune's little M.G. road. The youth thankfully seemed committed to the cause. Their banners left very little unsaid. A lot of energy...untapped, looking for direction. It frustrates me how not many older people looked 'clued-in' or interested even. I guess it comes from years of taking things for granted and just not caring. I belong neither with the youth ( except in spirit) nor the 'elders' ( except in physical fatigue)..am fuming and self-doubting...a bad position from any angle. Anyway, I signed up ( a little form) for what seems like an impending war against terror and corruption. Small scale, but a war nevertheless. Waiting and hoping it really happens.

.

Flipside

Words aren't coming easy. So much has already been said about what has happened in Bombay, the city where I was born and spent a good 27 years of my life. A city which gives everyone a chance...now, even the terrorists. In the eye of this crazy storm of negative emotions are my feelings of pity, for these young boys who were brainwashed and sent to their deaths. How were they brought up? What were they before they became these killing machines? There was a piece in yesterday's newspaper which said one of them was given up by his father in exchange for money. Dirt poor, they were. Now they're rich? I don't think this could have been an easy decision, for the father or the son. Yet they made it and acted on it. And suddenly this isn't only about money. There are 'educated', well to do, 'everyday' folks involved in many/all aspects of these operations too. What leads them down this path, I wonder. What sense of injustice, of persecution drives them to plan and execute these dastardly acts? Do the results satiate them? Make them feel better? I doubt it.

While everyone talks of control and reaction, I'd like to speak of positive action...finding the root cause of all these ills. Is it religion? I don't think so...religion is also only another crutch, another means of brainwashing those who need something to hold on to in desparate times. These boys were mere puppets. We need to get to those who hold the strings. Yes, I suppose I seem like some kind of traitor, sitting here and typing away about people who deserve nothing more or less than our complete contempt. They probably always had enough of that, atleast in their minds. Was that what pushed them over the brink? If I feel helpless about Bombay, I also feel sorry for those boys who came here and caused such misery. They weren't bold, they were cowards, scared of some demon they were convinced could be exorcised only this way. They were miserable inside, there was something missing. I don't see an end to this problem unless we find that something and restore the self image and self respect of a people who are perhaps in a scarier hell than we are.