Booooommmm

Since my last post, some major things have come to pass, the bombings in Mumbai affecting me the most. Thankfully, my friends and relatives are safe. Still, my heart reaches out to everyone who has lost someone or something in the gruesome attack.

Having said that, the attacks opened my eyes (again) to how the Media has taken over our lives. If the media had chosen to ridicule the government, then we would be hearing how the police were tardy and how members of public were forced to begin the clean-up themselves. Now we hear the resilience of Mumbai and does it make a good story or what. It is not that I don't salute the mental strength of Mumbaiites but the way media went to town about how the train services were in full-swing the day after and schools and colleges with near 100% attendance sounded hollow and hackneyed (maybe it is just me).

There was a lot of anger which seeped into the blog world as well. There were people who wanted the UPA government to resign, others who wanted India to take pre-emptive action against Pakistan (and this when we didn't even know who was responsible for the bombing) much like Israel's attack on Lebanon. And there were letters written to the terrorist, which to me, appeared juvenile.

There were many who wrote about the failure of the intelligence community. I wouldn't go as far as to call them lax. Well! what can they do? In a city as populous as Mumbai, and a rail network as busy as in Mumbai, it would be near impossible to check everyone everytime. And infiltrating a terrorist organisation with deep roots is just as difficult.

There was a guest column by the Director of some agency against cyber-crimes in Rediff who tried to emphasise how effective the intelligence system is, in spite of not being able to prevent the attacks in Mumbai. In Quality Analysis terms we stand at 3.5-4 sigma, he said and I have to give it to the guy; he knew what he was talking about. I mean, even if you did your best, the maximum humanly possible, an inventive terrorist can break through all of it and cause havoc.

The stalling of the peace process with Pakistan, if it happens, would be the true victory for 11/7. Has it occurred to our policymakers that the intent of the attack may not be to prevent people from going to their offices; children to schools. Could it not be aimed at disrupting the progress made in bilateral relations? The politics and public-sentiment is all for knee-jerk 'blame it on them, they are like that' and 'We can't trust them. So no more talks'.

This is a test for the government. Can they go ahead with the peace talks without buckling to popular sentiment and the trappings of politics? Only time will tell.