The Pathankot Attack and Us

7 Defense personnel die trying to fish out 6 terrorists.
I am no expert, but it sounds incredible!

Why the life of our soldiers so cheap? Why are we not better equipped to handle such situations, particularly when the aerial surveillance at the base spotted the terrorists as they entered the compound? I am not even making comparisons with the US or the Brits. Not even saying how an elite group of soldiers flew to another country (another air space), reached their most hated enemy and neutralized him in a matter a few hours without a scratch. If this is what 6 terrorists can do, what happens when an army attacks? Have we not upgrade ourselves to the latest technologies available?

I could be entirely wrong, but the families who are left devastated in the beginning of a new year shall never be mended again. We may hail them as martyrs (and forget about them the next moment), post their pictures in our FB (and change our profile pic to Indian flag) and send our salutes - but for the grieving families it doesn't sum up to anything. The armed forces and their families need more than this.

As someone said, you don't win a battle by dying, but by living and killing the enemy - and this is our eternal enemy, should we not be better prepared?

I am actually furious! What the bloody hell!

Picture from Indian Express

‪#‎PATHANKOT‬ ‪#‎IndianArmy‬ #PathankotAttack 

Today we are all Mumbaikars, Tomorrow lets all be Indians

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was one of my first in Kolkata in many years. My friends had planned for a big celebration, a party and lots of fun. But it was a unanimous decision to cancel the celebration by all of us. Simply we didn’t feel like having fun. We didn’t feel like celebrating.

It’s not about me alone or my friends. It’s not about Kolkata also. I got a feeling talking to people around the country how shocked, angry, sympathetic, and lost they are now feeling. In fact for some people, who since long time stopped thinking but only living their lives, they have taken a break too, to think. And that’s the silver lining I saw. It’s an unprecedented event that brought the entire nation together irrespective of their religion, region, caste or creed. And it has brought them together against one big fat enemy – the power sucking politicians. (I was aghast to see Narindra Modi visiting the Trident and making that speech!)

Terrorism is a day to day affair now. It can happen anywhere, at any time. It can affect any one of us now. We are scared. We are skeptical. We are horrified. But we are united too – in pain, in courage, in support, in emotion. We, however, know that terrorism is something that we can fight staying united. We, however, don’t know if we can fight irresponsible and selfish men at power (or seeking to be at power) or trust them with our lives anymore. But it gives me a strange feeling in the corner of my heart, that today, when 1 Billion people stand together as Mumbaikars, tomorrow we can all stand tall as Indians – against terrorism and people who showed they never cared.

Leaving emotions aside, it has now become important that we, as common citizens of India, be more responsible for ourselves and other people around us. We need to be alert, helpful and cooperative. Let’s not wait until the gun is fired at my family, let’s jump when it is aimed at my neighbor too.

Suheil Seth, on a TV Channel, had said something important – “We want to be first world country, but we are third world in mentality”. I am sure he said that out of sheer exasperation. And I share his emotion. However, somehow as I said earlier, I get a feeling, that we have, over the last 61 hours reached our “Chakde India” state. And that’s all first world…