On Tenterhooks Again

The phone rings, I pick up
“Watch the news, quick, bomb blasts in Jaipur”
I switch to news channel
Seven of them in less than thirty minutes!
And the media…they are at it again.
Familiar scenes, blood, mutilated bodies and other gory details
Too soon for a mind that hasn’t yet forgotten Hyderabad or Mumbai
People on tenterhooks again

Alerts resounded … How frequently? At such regular intervals?
“Meticulously planned mass murder of such magnitude,” everybody reacts
Police, government, people all over
Was it RDX, was it something else
Were they from Bangladesh or Pakistan?
Help is assured, bodies are kept in morgues
Cell phones of dead are used for conveying the news to their dear ones
Half lived lives, these young men, ill-fated and hapless victims
Their people crying, helplessly at the loss
Panic spreads, life is threatened
People on tenterhooks again

Stoic reaction to this barbaric act
Matter-of-fact kind of approach to deal with terror
If we don’t hear of such terror attacks periodically
We feel something is missing
Bane of modern life
Curse of this century - Terrorism
Temples scan coconuts before offering them to God
At Churches, Mosques and Gurudwaras very soon security men may outnumber visitors.
People on tenterhooks again

Next morning, my little niece looks at the newspapers and screams “bomb blasts again”
Kids of this generation will grow up differently- I tell myself.
I get ready and leave for my office.