the good, bad and the ugly

Terrorism is synonymous with grief,anger,remorse and regret.Saturday's serial blasts in New Delhi relay all of the above and more. As a college freshman, a certain concept that i heard in political science struck a chord and has remained with me henceforth.Its a concept that defies attention and yet plays havoc unnoticed , in political circles. Its called the logic of unintended consequences.In layman terms, this refers to events that are unforseable but nevertheless emanate from a well thought out plan of action.call it the side effect syndrome if you may but if terror attacks are here to stay ,so are they .

consider this : Since almost everybody has somebody ressiding or working in Delhi & NCR, if 30 people lost their lives in the recent terror plot,at least 30 lakh frantic telephone calls would have been generated to ensure that the caller and the called didnot feature among the select few. telecom operators must surely be smiling their way to the bank on this flash flood styled revenue generation.

cut to the cityscape. Being a metro,New Delhi exhibits a certain style of living or a certain way of life finds resonance across all the major metros of the globe.people in big cities lead increasingly isolated lives. multiple factors lke competition,time crunch and vast distances combine to create atomised individuals who might not even recall the name of their next door neighbours unless something spectacular were to compel this memorisation. the internet and social networking translates into building and maintaining viable 'contacts'-people we choose to invest a lot of time in, even though we'd never dare discuss anything personal or expect sympathy from.sadly, the very frameworkof this rat race ensures an increasing disconnect from schoolmates,old college friends,teenage crushes, relatives and families.surprisingly,it takes one terror attack in your city to bridge all that in an instant.emotional support systems go into overdrive and receiving calls from near and dear ones rids one of the dissapointments of the daily grind.we suddenly feel wanted,loved,cherished and cared for again: an exercise that would on normal ocassions require the assistance of days of therapy and regular attention.

also, news channels have a field day. their TRPs reach the roof and renewed interest in their programmmes generates viewer enthusiasm thats sure to last a week of newscasts.

if thats not enough, we are forcefully awakened from the doldrums of saas bahu serials & reality tv to drive home the realisation that there lies a bigger world around us and that there are inevitably more important things in heaven and earth to watch out for,than wannabe starlets gyrating to remixes. the romans made an interesting statement: if you cant give your people bread, give them circuses. sadly, the psyche of the indian people continues to stay tuned to this comedy circus phenomena-emerging as the unlikely inheritors of the roman legacy.how many of us will really give this incident more thought?how many will try to analyse the symbolism implied before jumping to age old conclusions ranging from, "all muslims are terrorists" to even "the police is ineffective".

and if thats not all, think of the political activity surrounding these blasts. the state of delhi is scheduled to go for polls this november and the lok sabha will witness a similar charade in 2009.add to that the interesting peoccupations of the majority pary and the BJP on Saturday evening and you just cant brush off Modi's comments as coincidence. ( for the uninitiated, the congress party had a meeting with all its important leaders on satuday,possibly to discuss their impending election agenda. the BJP too was organising a conclave in bangalore to chalk out their poll plans ).

the real losers are the unfortunate souls who lose their loved ones in unpreparedness. for no matter how much papers cry hoarse about feeling their plight, it isnt in human nature to feel sorry for the untimely departure of a life you didnt know,before tonight,existed.