the ways of terror

panic may have ruled delhi. the US, UK and Australian governments have sent across intelligence reports saying that terrorists are planning a massive operation here. police is on high alert, and so are people. i am not sure if footfalls have fallen, but in the places where i frequent, i see the same level of activity. then, in time square, half way across the world, they discover an explosive device.

what place is safe? how long can people continue to live in a state of high alertness? or, as the LG of delhi said, how practical is making vigilance a sixth sense? is it that we should learn to live with terror? or, that we should learn to live, in spite of terror?

in reply, people may quote people living endlessly in siege in palestine, iraq or afghanistan. with all due respect to them, suffering elsewhere should not be taken as a justification for suffering inflicted on someone else. if we have the potential to conduct the world cup hockey and to get the city ready for commonwealth games, we can survive this as well.

to wind up, the athletes who are reluctant to visit India for the games because of terror alerts should look around their own more familiar surroundings and see for themselves that terror these days is boundary-less. and if you give in to fear, you are conceding defeat; you are losing to them, against whom you are engaged in a war.