Is India a safe place to live ?

What made me to come up with a post that rummages through a series of ghastly incidents which have taken place over an year ? The two Breaking News flashes that CNN-IBN was covering yesterday when I switched the idiot box at 7 pm with an intention to relax but ended up getting petrified to my last toe nail. I am a man and I admit whenever I am afraid. There are blokes who get freaking scared when they are trying to change their shirt and a rat runs over their feet whistling and wagging it's tail. They jump all over the place and yet when you ask them, Were you scared, you would be subjected to a condescending look and a reply that says, 'Man, be a man'. You will become a jack ass for few minutes, if not for a lifetime, for such an idiotic question. To add to men getting scared, I was once flying from Hyderabad to Delhi through a airline that boasts of the tag, India's coolest airline, but landed after a 10 min roller coaster ride in mid air due to turbulence. That scared my daylights off and I told my co-passenger sitting next to me, Boy, it's a roller coaster ride and I am scared. He asked me, are you not into adventures? What the,beeping, adventure experience is going to save you if incase your flight comes crashing in less than a minute? I wished he had a rocket engine tied to his back and sent to space all alone with a leaking oxygen cylinder. The air-hostess instructions before take off - put your oxygen mask first, take out your life jacket and blow air if the aircraft lands in water - would all work well when your flight hasn't taken off. Lesson learnt:
If you are a man, don't ask a man whether he is scared because they are never going to admit that. Ask a woman, she might come closer to you and if lucky, you can even get a hug.

A bomb blast occured in a mosque in Ajmer killing a couple of people and injuring a few. It happened soon after Iftar - the day long fast that Muslims observe in the month of Ramzan.That was one to start with the latest. A suicide militant attack on a police reserve camp in Srinagar with no casualties reported as yet. There was a Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, an other sensitive place and a soft target for hooligans, when people were offering their religious prayers, in September. A Jemma Masjid blast rocked the country capital New Delhi, last year. One can add never ending list of madly triggered blasts claiming innocent lives. Police say there is a pattern going in the blasts. Investgating sleuths say, anti-social activists attacked Hindu temples and shrines previously and of late they are targetting Muslim dominated areas so as to trigger communal riots in the country. News reporter muses, Is it not safer for us to venture out on festival occasions and celebrate as before? As if this is not enough, Delhi blue line buses, the Government run transport, run over couple of persons everyday as if it's their norm. The death toll has risen close to 100 over a ten month span under the Blue line wheels. I don't have any statistics of enormous road accidents and local crimes happening all over the country. The same gruesome incidents can be going around the world with varying levels of intensity. I was shaken up with yesterday's blasts and now I am composing myself to compose a post. Allaying my fears to rest slowly and looking forward to the weekend.

And Corruption ! Corruption is escalating to untouched heights. You name a Government sector and you find corruption is their embedded right. You had a clean slate before taking up a job and your slate is scribbled, twisted and intertwined with corruption and bribes after working with government bureaucrats. Now we know why Indians living abroad do think twice to come back and settle, after treasuring relatively peaceful life and enjoying better than best comforts in comparison to their homeland. They do get paid handsomely and eking their livelihood in a much quieter environment and there is nothing wrong with their thought process, why the heck do I have to go back to India and struggle? They are right. It takes a total shift in your life style to adjust with the rising population, enough stuffed pollutants in your nostrils, the weird and uncalled blowing of horns and screams and driving your bike or car in metros is like playing a game of Roadrash or Need for Speed, in your computer. I don't feel safe anymore.I cribbed last Friday, I am cribbing today. I don't want to make it a habit. Need to relax and chill quickly, so I can come fresh to work on Monday.

But if you have a thinking that says, I was born here, I have my family and roots here, I feel I am welcomed when I step on this soil, then nothing can deter you. I belong to this land - The land of Gods, the land of temples, the land of snake charmers and elephants, the land of superstitions, the land of CULTURE, the land of an burgeoning economy. You may take an Indian out of India, but you cannot take the Indian out of him. Come what may in the future. I am an Indian and I would like to be buried in this mud.


[Views and opinions expressed by the author are his own and are not presented to offend any section of the people]