Hooray! Another terror attack!

Here it is again!  Terrorists attacking Mumbai!

I am as tired of this nonsense as anyone and I really have a great deal of sympathy for Mumbaikars.  This goes well beyond the grief and sorrow and the sheer weight of madness that descends upon us each time something like this happens.  Of course we have no real way of knowing what it means to be there, and be directly affected, but it is within us to imagine how bad it can be and we must extend all help and "support" however weak that sounds, to all people affected by this.

Truth is, nobody is terrorized.  Not even a school kid missed school because a few bombs went off.  There have been no outrageous reactions, no overt blame games, no show of panic, and no untoward chain reactions.  Thank God Ram Gopal Varma didn't show up like the punk he is at the attack sites either.

Perhaps it is not so sexy this time.  No white skinned foreigners dead.  No helicopters dropping commandos on buildings.  No high profile buildings burning, no live TV during the "action", and no drama.

But interestingly, Mumbaikars have said one thing that is remarkable both for its timing now, and the absence of it earlier - that they are sick of hearing about the "resilience" and "spirit of Mumbai" etc.  In other words, they are telling the world, "Don't bloody romanticize this nonsense.  We're just doing the one thing we can - move on." 

If the media had an iota of self respect, it would pull out of the things it would normally do - start useless debates, interview hordes of people, find "stories" that it can capsule, and throw in a good deal of its own bullshit to sum it all up, and even field a Disney cute question or two at the end of it, like the rest of us don't already have enough questions.  Usually, this "profound" question would wriggle out something like, "Are we a soft target by choice?".  It would stop, and think about the uselessness of all of this.

Mumbaikars have spelt it out this time - "Don't shag on our misery just because you don't have anything else to do".  But the media, in its rank ineptness but immense opportunism, has now taken up this very sentence - "We don't want to hear anything about resilience and the spirit of Mumbai", and started shagging with it.  This in itself is the new fuel for the next debate!  The question now is, "Are we becoming numb?".  How much lower can this descend?  Where is basic human decency?

Don't we have a right to not be examined all the time by incompetent nincompoops?  Why the heck is Anupam Kher on TV, giving his opinion on what is going on?  Is he in any way competent to either represent Indian civil society or is he a terrorism expert?  Why isn't our media not even capable of going beyond convenience and the regular exercises of trying to get viewership?

What is even more appalling is the assumption that we can't see through how shallow this nonsense is.  Yes indeed, we can switch off our TVs!  But when we give Padma Shris like cinema tickets, we should at the very least wonder why these recipient clowns cannot get their act together.  It has been far too long, and far too exhausting, but the cracks are finally showing.  This is not a test of resilience against terror attacks.  It is a test of our resilience against mediocrity.

Mediocrity in every sphere.  Apathy in every aspect.

Nearly three years after the big attacks of 2008, we do not have closed circuit cameras in all busy areas of our metros.  We do not have any greatly enhanced intelligence gathering apparatus in place, and we do not have information sharing that is immediate and comprehensive between various government agencies.  Our cops do not even have little computers that can dig up ownership information of vehicles on the spot. 

To assuage our feverish yells, the government tamely did what all our governments are good at doing - started another government body, called the National Investigation Agency.  http://www.nia.gov.in/.  Guess what?  Try visiting this site and you will get this message - This site is under maintenance. Sorry for inconvenience.

What freaking maintenance can keep the website of the National Investigation Agency offline?  What if I have key information I want to pass on anonymously and I want to do it through the internet?

Are we even serious about this kind of blunder?  Whoever is in charge of this should be shot dead.  Because s/he is an anti-national criminal.  If s/he is in charge of keeping this window of information open that might lead to great intelligence gathering and prevent terrorist attacks, this fool has failed.  S/he ought to lose his or her job at the very least, and tortured to find what links s/he has with our enemies.  Sadly, that job rests with the NIA itself, perhaps!  How comical does this get?

Try visiting the CIA website and it will never be down.  www.cia.gov.  It is NEVER down. We are an IT power?  Who are we kidding?  How can the NIA website be down at all?  It is the simplest part of the NIA's infrastructure to keep up and running.  So, how can we expect these clowns to take any efficient action during terror attacks, pirates hijacking our ships, espionage, smuggling, human trafficking, and other crimes of great import?  Truth is, we can't.

What is the alternative then?  Surely we can let terrorists know that there isn't much for them to bring down here!  We can't possibly be a threat to anyone!

- BSK.