Ashes to Ashes in Hyderabad

JS, the anguish is fully understandable and no doubt it is shared by many. If the past is any indication, chances are people will mourn for a few days then life will resume as usual.

We have seen that cycle so often. It used to bother me - now it bothers a bit less. We have seen how the USA reacted to the 9/11 event - by turning itself into a virtual fortress in many ways - and making its own people prisoners in the process. The people can become a prisoner of their own security apparatus and even worse, to their own prejudices and their own dark fears! :(

Perhaps there is something to be said for India's inability (or unwillingness) to react in a similar manner - it gives the aggressors much less of a "reward" for their heinous acts. In the longer term, countries determine their destinies based on how THEY make their decisions - and not on how they get manipulated through the crime of others.

Thanks BJ. Yes, I too find the US fortress-like isolation more disturbing than India's ability to keep moving on despite these acts. But I do believe that the government needs to start getting its act together and addressing this problem head on...without overreacting or going crazy. A tall order I know but I think it can be done.

Hope that someday this all will end? Dunno J, we can hope but I'm too cynical and think terrorism is here to stay. We may try to deter the terrorists but its hard to be one step ahead of them all the time

Yes, D, terrorism is definitely here to stay. Just like there were so many isms that came before it.

I think in India though, we need to ask the tough questions and stop hiding behind the Doordarshan images of Eid and Diwali...and actually find out what people think of each other. And find out the root causes...even if it is the holy cow of religion....and do something about it.

But my desperate hope is that we do go on despite these events. Just as the world survived the inquisition, colonialism, nazism, fascism and is still struggling against racism and communalism and terrorism.

I do not believe that there were any halcyon, terror-free days...but we can still manage to live our lives to the fullest in the gaps of these isms. Perhaps! I am still heartsick about these blasts...so perhaps I am grasping at straws here.

BJ, what, are you kidding me? Less reward for their heinous acts? As if we're dealing with philosophers, here!

Golly, we turned the other cheek again! Oh, the psychological victory! Yippee!
Oops, we also just got attacked again! But let's also call this another pyschological victory!
Oops, and yet another attack! Hey, another opportunity to turn the cheek again!

Eventually anybody will be running out of cheeks.

Your escapist ostrich behavior is pathetic.
Ostrich: "Let me stick my head into this hole, to deny the existence of this wild animal charging at me to tear apart my flesh! It'll be a psychological victory!"

It's amazing what a lunatic asylum this DesiCuckoos.com is.

You wouldn't have done a very good job during WW2, Mr Chamberlain.
"Hey, let's let them have Czechoslovakia! That will deny them any pyschological pleasure of thinking that we feel threatened!"

J:

eloquent, articulate, sad!

have submitted a response to DC

sanjay:

easy to (oh so predictably) pontificate from brampton?

;)

"And you cannot know that my despair tastes like dark, gritty ashes mixed with the amber honey of a hope that refuses to die."

Very sincere poetry, Jawahara.

Indeed, words defy this sort of thing. Inside my head, there is a cynic and a romantic, respectively fearing and hoping.
It is a difficult terrain to negotiate for the government, it can't let India become any of the extremes- a 'fortress' or a 'wuss'.

am late in reading this.

very beautiful, poignant and at the same time gutwrenching words.

I think the things that bind us together in humanity are joy and sorrow. we cannot feel the other's sorrow, but we can come to know what it might be like through our own.

I do hope that India can move forward, head held high in whatever way she needs to proceed. It is the best gift you can give to those who were taken.

"I cannot ever know what he feels as he touches the empty space in his heart that his son used to fill"

God, what a poetic line! And so incredibly sad.

There is so much beauty in an expression of grief.

Loss is profound and so is your post Jawahara!