Twin terror rocks India

Not floods and pestilence. Not corruption and inefficiency. Not drought and farmer suicides. Not another day of life in a country that only knows how to go on. Because life must … go on. But it needn't, always, without acknowledging some of the things that matter, just a wee bit more. Like the serial bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

Never before in the history of independent India have two major cities been hit in such a massive way in such quick succession. There was Hyderabad. There was New Delhi. There was Mumbai. There have been bomb blasts before. But there's something different about this time.

I was travelling by the Brindavan Express from Bangalore to Chennai enjoying a packet of chips and a cup of sweet coffee trying to log on to the net from my Tata Indicomm portable net connection without much success when, in the middle of a rare period of slow connectivity, I was 'pinged' by a friend of mine on chat - who, oddly enough, happened to be in China - with the news that the city I had just left behind had been crippled by fear, panic and more than a handful of explosions. In a moment of inappropriate levity, I felt like a terrorist fleeing from the scene of the crime.

Tasteless jokes apart, the incidents didn't touch me all that much. I had seen worse. I had been in Mumbai in 1992. Besides, this was happening while Murali and Mendis were crippling another 'India' at the SSC, Colombo. Already stunned by the events in Sri Lanka, I found it hard to muster an appropriate reaction to the 'Bangalore blasts'. (Besides, the news channels did say the blasts were of a 'low intensity'.) The only logical thought of some seriousness I managed being Chennai was likely to be next on the radar. How wrong I was.

The Indian second innings is what was next. And Ahmedabad. Now, after two 'Indias' have been laid waste by the twin terrors of Murali and Mendis at the SSC and, allegedly, the 'Islamic Mujahadeen' in Ahmedabad, one is again left wondering how one is supposed to react.

Does it matter that India were not good enough for Sri Lanka? Does it matter that I picked the extremely limited, LOTR-sounding opener, Vandort (not Voldermont) for my fantasy team and he let me down? Does it matter that The XI Downing Streets' performance so far has been less than inspiring? Does it matter that I need to ring in a few transfers before the start of the next match now that I know what some of the 'value picks' from Sri Lanka are capable of? Does it matter that thanks to the Jayawerdene, Dilshan, Murali, Mendis and Vaas also being IPL stars for Indian city teams, the thrashing doesn't hurt all that much? Does it matter that a cricket Test match I had primed myself to watch for over five days left me high and dry with a foregone conclusion in less than two and a half? Does it matter that Harbhajan, Kumble, Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag and the rest of the Indian stars need to start taking Test cricket a little more seriously?

Does it matter that the world's largest democracy has been shaken by a series of explosions so disturbing it leaves even someone as self-absorbed, cynical, insensitive, stone-hearted and desensitized as you awake to the magnitude of the event, even if only momentarily? Perhaps one ought to bring out a black armband or two to express one's condolences.

Right then, this post was written wearing a black armband to protest against the barrage of terrorist bombings in India. And double-digit inflation.