This must have been a surrealistic moment for you Shekhar? So close to chaos; yet, a God-length away from the destruction.

This is partly why bombings are so senseless. It stops nothing; it bears no message to the world; other than death and destruction of innocent lives.

Life goes on, regardless. Time never stops; not for life, nor death; it almost seems a wrong somehow.

May we all unite in prayer for those departed too soon; and for peace and comfort for their grieving families; for peace in Asia and around the world.

North

Perhaps they are somewhat removed from the reality of it and it becomes like a movie.

When one watches a movie one becomes part of the reality of it.

Reality is an interesting thing, and so is the battle to control it (the collective reality).

Fine point, Richard. I went through that when I watched the Passion of the Christ; and again; as I watch the horror occuring around the world.

Very difficult to detach from the outcome; and get to the source of the manifestation; our human race faces, millennium through millennium a seemingly unbreakable tie of desire to conquer and destroy.

North

If the franchised ignore the reality disenfranchised, the disenfranchised will make their reality known. And if there reality is harsh then so will be the communication of their reality. The solution is to make sure you franchise everyone.

Makes logical sense Richard; almost like a "disinfecting" solution/method.
North

Hi North,

For some it is easy to detach and seperate, which is embracing an Illusion, but it seems that eventually what they seeked to avoid comes to be standing and staring them in the face and becomes a reality.

Hey if you never want to be able to trust your mind or eyes again and see how your reality can be altered. I can prove that I know where you are looking and change what you see. We are of One mind and soon as the world come to see.

Warning do not adjust your computer screen we are taking control of your mind there will be nothing wrong with your monitor.We are going to demonstrate reality and Illusion.

http://infiniteplaythemovie.com/infinite_player_is_endowed_w.htm

I guarantee amazement and wonder.

And a great Peace returned to the world and the world was filled with wonder and the children looked to each new day with delight and a child like spirit led them.

Shekhar,

I firmly believe that life must go on, specially at times like this - though I'm not sure about the 'Chanel' show. The thing that most impressed me about Mumbai and its people was the way that the hit back at the terrorists after the Gateway explosions was their resilience and spirit. That is what I feel today about the citizens of Delhi and their reaction. A prayer for the victims, their loved ones and admiration for those who, in spite of their fears and anguish went carried on with their lives is a stinging slap to the terrorists.

My brother wanted to hit the Forum - arguably the most crowded place in Bangalore at the moment, and my and parents reaction were "Dont Go, dint you just see what happened in Delhi? Avoid such a crowded place!"

And he was like
"you guys get worked up over nothing!"

And he was right. As the British tourist said on NDTV, we need to show the terrorists that nothing in our life will change. That they are of no consequence.

and life goes on....

Isn't part of this "going on" a message to cold heartless terrorists that we are not going to let these acts stop us in our tracks? To me we must go on, but at the same time, do whatever we can do to promote peace and not hatred, while offering help to those who have loss.....

Joanie

I saw the news about the delhi blasts and the derailed train within a span of 30 mins. Both brought about the same reaction in me "oh my god, what is going on?" Of course one is based on hatred and the other I would say on ignorance, but in both cases people have died. Life still goes on for everyone else. I am sure if any one of us were part of either of these tragedies we would want the world to go on with their lives....right? I highly doubt it. Most probably we would have made our protests, complaints, called on the media, blamed the politicians, and talked about people who have no feelings.

It does finally come down to the perspective you see it in. You have the choice to ignore something or be indifferent. Indifference pairs up more with courage in a sense where you can say " no matter what you do or say, my life goes on the way I want it to even if it means to take action against you or acknowledge your existence." When you ignore something you are saying " i don't care who and what you are, i don't want to know you exist." So the question is do we choose to ignore as a way of evading reality or are we trying to be courageous.
Here in Florida, a hurricane can stop all events from taking place. With Hurricance Wilma, there was a statewide cancellation of all public events for that particular weekend. Even with hurricane victimes still in shelters and deprived of their daily routine life, life still goes on for the rest of us, but not without helping the victims, providing food, helping your neighbors and friends protect their homes.

Of course we cannot predict bomb blasts, but we can surely do something if we live in the vicinity to help. The "Chanel" fashion show for starters could have acknowledged the delhi blasts and dedicated the show to the victims of the blasts and collected all the proceedings to go towards the families of the victims ( I am not sure if they did all this, since I have no way of finding out if they did; if they did then good for them and I take what I said back.)

Well to set a filmi example let's say as always there is a protagonist (hero) and an antagonist ( villian.) The setting is of a marketplace (studies say most of us are visual learners), the villian beats up a innocent bystander in front of the hero. Now what does the hero do? Does he continue to do his grocery shopping or does he help the victim standup and along with him face the villian?

Do we choose to ignore or be indifferent?

Chitra

That must have been a scary experience, Shekhar. Glad to hear you're safe and sound. I think as far as possible life must go on. That does not mean we pretend nothing happened, or don't plan for future safety.

Tragedy effects each of us differently. I was more upset about this than my mom. Perhaps at her age she's beyond strong emotions. Young kids, teens, 20somethings too generally don't care much. So if we start shutting things down as a mark of respect we would be forcing our emotions on to people who don't really feel the same way and that doesn't seem right.

Hello Shekhar and Everyone,

I remember watching the 9/11 attacks on TV, all morning. In the afternoon I went to the Mall. When I think of that response, today, I can't believe I did that, but I realized that I was in shock, and I was not even in New York City, but watching those images all morning were beyond my comprehension, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I could not digest it. It took days for it to sink into my consciousness. It was a horror and horrors are not what we are born to experience, they are not in our spiritual DNA, they are only in the DNA of man's mistaken identity...that of being not ONE in the eyes of our Universe but two to two billion in the eyes of each other...peace ruth

thanks divya, the first instinct of our minds is a search for normalcy. To fall back into a known routine. Shekhar

How misguided can you get?

According to the CBC, religious leaders in the earthquake region are telling victims their situations came about because of their sins!

Dear Shekhar,
The first instinct of our minds may be to search for normalcy, but the instinct of our heart, stirs feelings. Feelings of .... sadness, disbelief, hurt.

Our minds would have us explain away, point fingers, talk and analyse, turn away, just go on with Life as Normal.

But truly, if an event affects you deeply, you never go on as normal, in quite the same way. Feelings awaken, at least in me, of knowing the preciousness of Life. I am part of something that seems beyond me, but I am Not. It does touch me. I carry the wounds until they heal.

Love,
~~ K

Dear Shekhar,
I am surprised. We Indians are immune to Bomb blasts for more than two decades now. It was more than 20 years that on a diwali night, sikh terrorists sprayed bullets on innocent people in various Puja Mandaps in Delhi. There were shock and disbelief during those attacks. It is also a long time since children died from the bombs implanted in toys and radios. There were shocks and disbelief during that time also. Since then much water have flown through river Yamuna. If delhites have to stop and to mourn, then the city would be mourning for half of the year. So your shock and response really surprised me. But I must admit that for an outsider it is entirely different feeling from watching on TV or reading in newspaper or seeing on computer screen. The physical closeness from the place of incident has a different impact on anyone’s bearings

Dear Shekhar, Divya; et al; sometimes I think; it is that "routine" as you mentioned Shekhar; is what keeps us at life's pace; and not our own.

We grasp for it, the moment it slips.

Regardless of circumstance/event; time is inevitable; and one day; peace will be too, among us all.

So glad to hear too; you are ok; I forgot to mention it in my first post(gentle frown.)

My son says: "living in fear is what keeps you there" and I replied: "who taught you that?" and he responded: "you did, Mom." And, I said in return; "remind me son; as I age, and forget."(gentle smiles)

Touching each of you from way over here; with kind, and good thought intentions; may we all feel, an enveloping peace.

North

North (and Shekhar). That's very true, and you're probably the first person who's said that to me. I love my routine and people think I'm crazy for saying that. If my life falls into a "whatever" pattern for more than a month or so, I begin to feel all scattered and miserable. There's great comfort in routine.

I like my routine too; a few days off from it; and I'm not frazzled; but, "finicky." (smiles)

Big hug, just be-cause(giggle), all around the room.

North

All,

What surprises me more is that few people who open discussions on this site have remaind quiote about it, not condemning it.

This act is worth not only condemnation,but i feel of some discrimination as well.

The congress has been so pro minority yet has failed miserably. Ahmedabad riots were condemned, int he same breath godhra was not.

Sam , Dam, Dand, Bhed all have to be used judiciously. It was right to give capital punishment to the red fort culprit- that was Dand ( punishment)

Bhed against a larger mass needs to be created very temporarily ( i dont know how to measure or control, but am tired of this). If Hindus are not wished ' happy diwali" dont go and wish muslim firends " eid mubarak". May not make a difference at all, but in your own self you will know that it does not always pay to be pro secular ( Nandita want to draw your attention here). One has to also fight injustice, non-violently.

M

Mrudula - people are just expressing their personal feelings. Most of us don't use words like "condemn" - which seems to be the job of a government or an instituion. We can only express our shock, dismay, grief and the like.

I'm glad you and yours are safe

There was a time when I thought my Grandmother had seen it all... she was born in 1904. She lived through the depression! Witnessed the wars! Her husband and her brothers fought in the wars. She grew up in the era of no television or toilets. She rode on a horse drawn-buggy to get from point a to point b until vechiles toke over. She passed away a few years ago now, died at the age of 94. Interesting enough...I've changed my mind! She never seen it all! I have a feeling we are the generations that will see more than we ever really care too.

Sometimes I think about my mom and how her illness robbed her of seeing her family grow-up, and it makes me very sad, but when I see all of these events going on in the world I stop and think I am really glad she never had to witness any of this. It would have torn her heart out!

The same notion, or the flip side to the coin, life goes on. What can you do? It's not like we can stop the earth from spinning, but than again maybe the problem is our loss of respect for life?

Dear Shekhar ,

Would you be strong enough to make a world class film on plight of Kashmiri Pandits over the centuries.

This community has suffered no lesser than what happened to jews. Today they are on verge of cultural extinction , having lost their script(Sharda), traditions and now language.

But perhaps, like Kashmiri Pandits are no vote banks , this community's plight may not hold commercial value for the film makers.

I wish, you would do it. And if God grants me one wish, I would ask for this.

Plz visit www.ikashmir.org & www.koausa.org for some details.

Pawan

i guess people around de globe have started to accept life and the world de way it is now - with a lil bit of salt and they just move on. With killings and bomb blasts and acts of terrorism in all corners of de world becoming so common a headline in de papers, de remain just dat -mere headlines - a piece of statistics for future reference..for historical records except for those who are affected by such heinous acts at a very peronal level.

hundreds of tv news chanels have sprung up from nowhere covering (sometimes)such incidents but often just carry "breaking news" for sheer sensatinalism and higher TRPs. Death has become so common a word used nowadays...dat it has become de latest commodity fetchin de media...de amateur photographers(today everyone is with their fancy cellphone) de moo-la!

death and killings and attacks and rape have unfortunately become a way of life now for all of us....and all we are trying to do now is look for a cure when we actually should be looking for a way for prevention.
wen we travel on buses we r told to caryy pepper sprays for protection from potential rapists(acc to a certain article in a leadin papaer...all men are potential rapists) rather than see to it dat incidents fo rape go down by treating the men to perform such acts which scar de victims for life...

i know im movin off de topic..so i shall stop here!

SO back to the bomb blasts now – I think the people of Delhi should be applauded for their efforts not only during the hour of need when bodies- charred and mangled with steel had to be recovered but also for the way they have stood up against these blasts and the people who perpetrated them. The spirit of Delhi is very much alive in the sense that they were no clashes between religious communities, with one community passing blame to the other and trying to raise fingers at each other. We have stuck together well, given that Delhi is a pot-pourrie of various communities – political as well as religious and yet we held on to our sanity when the situation asked for it the most!

But, there still remains a voice in my head which keeps asking me – was it just sheer indifference that we have managed to cloth well in our so called spirit?