Fear, fear everywhere

Security has been stepped up, thousands of police have been deployed, reserved forces have been called out...It seems that the terrorists have instilled fear in the minds of the people.

One wonders if publishing information about how "secure" we have made the important places would help. One of the key things in security, one would imagine, is to not alert the "enemy" at all and simple prepare as quitely as one can. One would think that publishing openly what security measures are in place would cause the enemy to backoff only to attack at a time when it is least
expected.

On the other hand, there is another angle for doing that. There are some guys who when provoked would like to "show off" how they can attack the toughest secuirty rings. That way, we would catch the enemy red-handed. This is the mind-game or pyschology angle.

It doesn't seem that our authorities are so bright as to be doing the second thing. They seem to be doing it to want to show people that they are acting on the threats perceived and doing something about it. Lest something happen and people then blame them for sitting on the "input".

India was never perceived as an "Islam enemy" by its non-neighbors until recently. Two incidents that changed this come to mind: the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Gujarat riots. It seems plain as water to me that these incidents may have changed India's image in the terrorists' viewpoint. India has now been caught in the middle of the gunfire.

I remember my conversations more than a decade ago with a Bangladeshi Muslim I had met with in the United States. He seemed to have some misunderstanding about how bad Indians treat Muslims. I am sure biased media reports in their country would have played a role in making them believe that India was the "terrorist" country. Of course, at the same time, there were reports of hundreds of Hindus being harassed and burnt in Bangladesh. One could read reports of these on the websites. But I did not hear any outcry or anything of that sort in India.

Why? We've taken down things lying down for too long. That's why.

Feels like "jail"

The first semester of the MTech course having begun, it seems unlikely to be able to be doing anything else other than studies. We are made to believe that the first semester is a "killer" one. From the experience in the past 2 weeks, it certainly seems to be so.

Let's hope there is some relief in the second semester.

Although I haven't started staying in the hostel room, it is on "stand-by"...so that I can use it at any day or night that I may have to spend there. That means that all things like bucket, mug, table lamp, spare clothes, mattress, etc. are in place.