Sunday, February 22, 2009

Terror in the back-yard

Two days back there was a multi-cylinder blast just behind my hostel. Do you think I sound so casual? Well, you are right then. I am going to explain the reason behind it. It was around 11:45 pm and I was watching a movie. All of a sudden I heard some thunder like sound. I thought someone must be loading or unloading some heavy goods because there were no signs of rain. I felt the building vibrating. But I could not think of anything serious that time. Five minutes later the power went off. Then I suspected something unwanted happened. When I went out, all girls had come downstairs. People were panicky. Some said it was a blast somewhere. Some did not know. Then our hostel guardian told it was a cylinder blast in a Gas Agency just behind our hostel. I shuddered at the very thought of being so close to a terrible accident. I was feeling heavy inside though I was not afraid. We were waiting till the guardian told it was safe to go back and the power came. The entire building was fuming. I still did not recover from hearing the news just then we heard another blast- now loud and clear, scary enough. I then realized how one would feel to be near a bomb-blast. Surprisingly, most of the girls who screamed at the sound here were quite brave. Brave enough to gossip and have fun, brave enough to laugh at a nasty joke thrown by someone. It was extremely infuriating. How can such people become the saviours of India? Just imagine our country in the hands of these people. Even the guys (Software Professionals) who were staying in the nearby areas were going for a midnight stroll around the streets watching the activity and quickly changing the chat topic to something funny. They looked quite amused. Probably something entertaining was happening. No one had the slightest intention of giving a helping hand. I had a feeling that youngsters of today may not seem quite serious unless something serious happens. But I was wrong. They are never serious about anything anytime. I could see the real attitude of the generation I am living in. It was more painful than the incident itself. More shocking was this part of the episode where two policemen with their rifles were going home(supposedly)after their duty in their bike. They just noticed the commotion there and a laundry person told them that there was a cylinder blast and fire a few yards away. The policemen sincerely listened to him and then rode away to their original destination. So whom do we believe in times of need?

So now do you understand why I sounded so casual? Because the whole environment around me was casual. No one had a percent of feeling of remorse- which is the least thing we could have done at that moment. Even in the place of accident, hundreds of people were watching the operation. I was reminded of the Operation Cyclone, where a special group of police was necessary to control the crowd outside instead of helping the commandos inside. Similar situation here. Police had to control the crowd and commotion rather than help the fire extinguishing personnel. The positive point here is no one panicked. The negative point here is everyone was quite normal as if nothing has happened around. Oh yes! They had something to talk about whole night and the next day and the day after.