Head held under water

Sigh.. Another boring week gone by. Watching TV. Old reruns of Will n Grace etc. Dvds. Not much else..Oh ya!! I almost forgot. I was held hostage by terrorists for nearly a week.


Of course, I'm being egoistic. The whole of Mangalore was held hostage..for the honour of 2 cows.
Dictionary.com defines a terrorist as 'a person who terrorizes or frightens others' and a hostage as : 'a prisoner who is held by one party to insure that another party will meet specified terms'

That pretty much describes what we had going here since Wednesday night. Heck, Wednesday itself was a bandh over the 'Belgaum belongs to whom' issue. And then, Wednesday night, comes the infamous chase scene where the cattle going to the abattoir were intercepted by India's version of the JUSTICE LEAGUE - the Bajrang Dal. Oh wait, I'm supposed to use 'alleged' when I have no proof ( proof= a letter from them admitting to doing illegal activities..) Anyway, not happy after chasing down the vehicle carryong the animals, the League 'allegedly' decided this was a good excuse to go attack anyone they saw who looked Muslim. And so began this ridiculous saga.

TV channels talk of how ' the situation was under control ' on Friday night..the 1st report given to the Indian public..48 hours after the clashes began. They talk about how violence broke out between 2 fundamentalist groups. You know something ? 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time..but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.'

A clash between 2 fundamentalist communities? A cat chasing a mouse is not called a clash of 2 species. It is a hunter chasing the prey. That is what was taking place in Mangalore this week. This was our Justice League trying to get a foothold into Mangalore using the only tactics they know - violence.

I dont care what my religion says - a cow is not worth the life of all of us, irrespective of religion. It was not worth the 1000s of families stranded with no food and scavenging behind closed shutters for overpriced stale chapatis. I know. I was one of them this time.

For those 3rd rate, jobless, illiterate, pay-per-riot morons,we sat with our hands on our asses. We watched the police and the blue brigade all roll by warning us against stepping onto the streets ( the shoot at site orders helped make that decision easier ).Dr Shaffi, my batchmate, was part of a group praying in a mosque, who found that awaiting their exit from the mosque were a 100 odd Justice Leagues with hockey sticks and swords. Not for terrorists or bank robbers..for the doctors, engineers, architects inside who had gone to break their fast. It took a locked door and the arrival of the police to get the families back to their home.Dr Ramna, another close friend, was part of the team of doctors on call in Ullal, the worst affected area, where patients came 'with broken bones and a huge stab wound on his scalp' to quote her. Passengers for a flight back to Dubai who tried making the flight by travelling in an ambulance to the airport were stopped and killed mercilessly on the road. And yet, the news channels told us 'the situation was under control'

Everyone knows who's behind this. The police near where I lived admitted,sorry, allegedly, admitted the presence of just one group with weapons around the scene.This ain't good enough!! I want answers. Why were we held hostage for 6 days ? Why were all the layers of society reduced to hunting and fighting for food on Sunday when the curfew was relaxed for 2 hours? Why was I reduced to having chewing gum for dinner on Thursday just because I was asleep at 3pm when all the shops were forced shut? Why were students in hostels on the outskirts stranded with no food for 2 days? Why is the media and politicians so impotent when it comes to belling this wild cat ?
Oh F%$* it!! Just because they won't admit it doesn't mean we have to shut up. I know what happened here- the whole of Mangalore knows what happened here.
As I write this, I just got a call from Siddu informing me the bandh ain't over yet - just a relaxation till the evening and so I have to get back to my one-room jail for the 7th night night straight.
Mark these words - 15 years from now, we, India, will be hunted by the superpower of that day for making the same mistake Afghanistan made. Giving power to a bunch of jobless fanatics who use religion to promote hatred. They will bite more than they can chew...and we will have to pay.
For now, after 7 days, hearing the sounds of buses is a sweet symphony. But I must get back by 7pm.. Cinderella's carriage may have changed into a pumpkin at midnight..but if I'm on the streets tonight, my transportation will be an ambulance.
By God, when this is over, I'm gonna go and 'allegedly' get myself the biggest beef steak I can find. Might as well go down happy!!