They came, bombed and vanished into thin air!!!

Having lived in Pune all my life, I have always felt safe and secure in this Maratha city. All this changed on 13 February 2010 which will forever be marked as a red-letter day for Pune. Its the day we as Puneites realised that we not only have army and air force presence but also the dark lurking presence of sleeper cells in our city. Its the day we rudely awoke to the fact that our city is on the list just as much as metros, that our regular cup of tea (in this case Iranian tea/ginger lemon tea pot,etc) sipped in a quaint, idyllic, roadside cafe could cost us dearly, that high alerts received from the Indian intelligence/police patrolling will not save us from impending terror attacks and so on.

My 24 year old neighbour- Vikas Tulsiani breathed his last on 21 February 2010 after fighting for his life for more than a week. This post is my way of giving tribute to this guy who was oblivious to the fact that he would have to pay for his meal at German Bakery with his life. Vikas was one of the nicest and mild mannered guys I had ever come across. It is pointless to really ask why God fated him to be in the wrong place at the wrong time that day.

Glancing through the list of people who succumbed to their injuries (16 at last count), it was obvious that 99% comprised of young students who were on the brink of new careers. Vikas himself had received his graduation certificate on the ill-fated 13th morning and had been comtemplating pursuing a career in sound engineering. What is enraging about all this is - you had innocent, regular people like you and me, who did nothing foolhardy to deserve to meet their end or have their limbs amputated or suffer above 30% burns.

The important questions to ask now are:-
- Will the sacrifices of innocent citizens be honoured by punishing these terrorists? Or will these terror perpetrators wind up colling their heels in jail awaiting a trial despite their heinous crimes?
- Will there be a continuing lack of preparedness to counter future attacks?
- Will there be a lack of political resolve to reassure people that their lives are precious?
- Will Intelligence Agencies continue to under-inform and take no heed of information gathered earlier? (Mr. Headley had done a recce of areas barely 100 m from German Bakery just a few months ago) Further, will our revered Home Minister conceal the glaring gaffes of his police force in reacting to such information and elude the mention of their responsibility to protect the city.

Public defiance to such attacks has to survive the onslaught of time or else these painful memories wane eventually, leaving us just as vulnerable as before.