The most important change that I'm looking forward to this year...

I’m writing this rather late, but Jonaki, I’ve kept my promise! 2008 has been a year of changes for me—I started the year by joining Pearson, changed houses thrice during the year, and got married at the end of the year. So, on the personal front, I’d look forward to stability more than any more changes this year! But when I reflect on the year that has just gone by, there’s one difference I wish the coming year will bring us…

 

The bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Guwahati, and scores of other places; the Mumbai terrorist attacks; and the increasing number of murders, rapes, and road rage in the city make me look forward to a year when there won’t be such utter failure of intelligence, alertness, and tolerance in the country. The Mumbai attacks were so horrific that they seemed to be out of a Hollywood flick on alien attacks. And while violence is not new to us, the extent to which such heinous crimes have progressed makes us cringe. Never before had we heard of terrorists bombing a place and lying in wait at a hospital where the victims of their blasts were being rushed to. The most recent blasts in Guwahati only remind me of how, when I visited a crowded blast site recently, there was no police presence or checking to ensure that a place that has been bombed over a dozen times doesn’t become a target yet again.

 

Violence is always meaningless, but what strikes me most that ordinary people—not just terrorists—seem to be becoming increasingly unfeeling too. TOI’s list of ridiculous reasons for murders in 2008 bears witness to this fact. So, as we step into a new year, the biggest change I look forward to is that the coming year will be a safer one for us. I hope we’ll become more alert and tolerant of others!

 

 

Shabnam Dohutia