ROT IN HELL... *** You need to be more careful***

Not more than a couple of days back, a ba****d in Tamilnadu, who brutally raped and murdered a couple of kids was shot dead in an encounter. May he rot in hell.

RAPE. Possibly the worst crime that can ever be done. It is so frustrating that a man who rapes a girl walks free after he does the crime and to worsen it, he even threatens the girl and her family to refrain from going to the cops. Even if they do go to the cops- what happens- the cops are hand in glove with the rapist, since he in turn is hand in glove with some big shot politico.

Every single day that I open the newspaper, the lines glare at me with at least one news of rape in some part of the country. What's even worse is the media publicity for a rapist. Crap. Imagine-  cases of dads raping daughters, trusted drivers raping their bosses' daughters. Such things are utterly atrocious.

How can rape be contained? how can it be controlled? Certainly not by arresting the rapist and trying him by IPC sections blah, blah and blah. It can be controlled only by some truly bloody law (or even unlawful law) enforcement. Something on the lines of the punishment meted out to a rapist who features in RGV's Rakta Charitra should do the trick.

Back where I come from

I don't know if any of my American friends read this blog, but if you are reading.. just carry on..

Well, back where I come from, I find my streets crowded with people, cars and my roads are always buzzing with activity, whatever be the time of the day. Here in Buffalo- its a surprise to see ten people walking on the road at any point of time. I always find it very odd not to find too many people on the roads, because my eyes are used to it and also used to looking for known faces where ever I go.

To buy a chocolate, I needn't walk a kilometer down a so called main road. All I need to do is pop down the stairs, buy it and get back home. Cars don't stop by for pedestrians and people keep bumping into each other. Signals do change and people don't forget to break rules.

At the fag end of each month, cops stand at almost every road, waiting for unsuspecting prey to cross their path and at the end of the day, they are the rajas. Back home, I didn't think twice about spending on anything, now things are such that, the thought of spending doesn't occur that often. Back home- I agree- I didn't walk much, but here, the number eleven bus's my main mode of transport.

I hardly used to see a cop having a gun on his person, but here, there's not a single cop who doesn't have a gun. Back home, proper queues are rarely ever seen, while there's a queue for everything here.

Back home- I could watch TV, here I don't have a TV. I used to watch a movie at Satyam, almost every weekend or atleast twice a month- here, I watch a movie that I ve watched a thousand times over.

Pani puri and Bhel puri used to be an item, which I could eat at will, now- merely seeing those items at the India store, brings back memories of having those stuff at chat stalls all over the city. I used to ask dad to change the old zen for a new car, now merely seeing my old zen, would certainly make me feel happy.

I used to sympathise with many of my friends who used to stay away from home, as they miss their mother's cooking. Now I have some of my friends who sympathise with me for that. Back home, staying awake till 1 am in the night would mean that I would still mean that I wake up by 8 am in the morning, but here, I wake up only by around 12 pm.

I had everything at my disposal at home, here I have nothing at my disposal. It s a cycle of life mates, whenever you have something, you don't realise its value and when you are away from it, you realise it's value many fold. When I asked one of my friends if he had ever been tipped by a customer at the food court where he works, he sorely recollects, never having tipped any waiter at any hotel that he went to, and now he hardly gets any tips.

But really, whenever I see something written in Tamil or Hindi, really- I get so excited, because, it's not everyday that I get to see something like that here. However, living in a maximum Indian area of Buffalo, I'm happy that I atleast get to speak in Tamil and Hindi rather than ending having to learn chinese and learning to catch the American accent, which does take sometime to understand.

Its been 2 months since I landed up here, but I'm still to actually realise that I'm away from my dear old Chennai.

But one thing that I have carried from home till here is Faith and Hope, which will certainly take me through tough times.

P.S: Mum, I know you'll read this, don't worry. I'm all fine here, jus wanted to let ppl know how things are here.

Think...

There are several things that we, Indians need to learn from this attack.

1- This attack was not an ad-hoc attack. This was extremely well planned, with the targets being hand picked in such a manner that there would be damage inflicted on a scale so far unknown to us.

2- Apparently, these terrorists, whose total number is not yet known, have made several recons of these hotels and the city. They must have had several dry runs to check out all these places. Apart from these dry runs, it is reported that these terrorists must have had some accomplices staying inside these hotels. Video footages showed these terrorists carry a shoulder bag, which could ve been big enough only to hold a few magazines in it. These terrorists were having a sackful of grenades with them which must have been kept inside the hotel even before the attack started. Of course yes, these terrorists were extremely well trained, which has enabled them to keep India's most elite battle ready commandos at bay for over 48 hours.

3- Despite several attacks on Mumbai and N number of intelligence reports suggesting that Mumbai is very much vulnerable, neither state nor central governments seem to have put any anti terror mechanism in place.

4-Apart from all this, we do have GREAT POLITICIANS, EMINENT people like SHITRAJ Patil who appear on TV to comment on a situation where so many lives are lost. Btw.. what the hell was Narendra Modi doing there? and where the hell is the great maratha- Mr. Raj Thackeray?

5- It was the courage, grit and determination of the NSG, Marine Commados and the army and last but not the least, the Maharashtra police that has helped the people. There was nothing from the side of our great politicians, to help, if anything at all.

6- The media has done a great job by covering the entire series of events, and the Indian media has matured considerably. This can be proved by the fact that the media used discretion in their coverage rather than trying to outwit rivals by disclosing classified info that the media may have got. Hats off to you. But there were some noobs who cut Mumbai off from the news channels for a few hours, which kept Mumbaikars in the dark for quite sometime.

7- CNN has focussed on India in the last 48 hrs so much that they would nt ve covered India so much even in the last 5 years. And this is because of FBI agents landing in Mumbai to try and offer help. It is also reported that an American intelligence agent was shot dead in the Taj.

8- Nariman house is home to a few Israeli citizens, which has prompted Israel to offer help in the counter terrorist operation, which India refused.

9- Maharashtra has decided to setup a NSG like organisation to counter terrorism. All this only after attacks targetting the upper class of the society and international tourists. No action what so ever after several bombings which killed innocent commen people like you and me who are reading this article.

10- The touring England team will not play its test match in Mumbai. There has been a change of venue from Mumbai to Chennai. Chennai is reeling under a different attack. This is an attack by the rain gods who promptly bless Chennai, whenever a cricket match is announced, however focus back on Mumbai.

11- 3 top cops were killed during the initial encounter on wednesday night. All 3 of them will be forgotten soon. Let's hope Maharashtra's finest would learn their lessons atleast from their deaths.

12- What is the PM going to do by calling the ISI chief over to help in investigations? Pakistani links to this attack has all but proven to the world.

13- Al-qaeda shas been suspected to have been the mastermind behind these attacks. If that is true, then it will be the first time ever that India has been attacked by Al-qaeda. Of course, Al-qaeda have operated previously in Kashmir, but never past the borders of Jammu and Kashmir.

14-The main motive of these terrorists was not to hold Mumbai for ransom or to get some of their associates released. Clearly, this attack was aimed at destabilizing the Indian economy and also to drive home a point to international tourists and business people as well, that India is not a safe place anymore. The sole motive of these terrorists was wreak havoc, create panic and terrorise Mumbai and India in a manner that people would fear to step out again. We have to gear up to fight a new breed of terrorists, who are not fanatics with a gun, but trained fighters, who know the tactics and strategies of urban warfare.

If we do not learn our lessons soon, it won't be long before India becomes a terror torn country like Afghanistan. Security laxes, lack of co-op between intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been highlighted by these attacks. Incompetence of our politicians to do anything about it has been another point to note.

These terrorists seem to keep asking us this question over and over again- we can hit you anyway, anytime we want. What can you do?

- A stupid common man