Peace for India is actually Utopian

My motherland, my state Assam, bleeds!! Born and brought up in Guwahati, but actually sitting here in Bangalore writing this post for my blog!! But I am also devasted like all the people in my state and the nation as a whole. The blast in Ganeshguri is just 10 mins from the place where I stay. My kith and kin pass that place everyday. I had been there just two weeks before! This place has been targeted many times though. Once I remember, the blast was so furious that a big deep crater was formed. But yesterday's blast triggered off another act of terrorism, an act of cruelty that cannot be compensated.

It was a regular working day for me yesterday(October 30, Thursday), when my phone started vibrating. My friend Sachin calls up from Kishanganj as he's there on leave. I started having the regular friendly chatter. Suddenly, he told me that 3 blasts has occured in Guwahati. I wasn't astonished as I have grew up in that violent environment. Having a bomb blast is a regular occurence. I candidly said "What's new in there?" He said its really gory this time, news channels are flashing with reports. Smoke is billowing from the buildings and everything is in flames. Still the gravity of the situation didn't sink in.

After hanging up on Sachin, I called up my dad, and he was in tears, my 'mama' (mom's brother) was not reachable. Actually, he works in the DC Court where a blast took place. But,he was safe. I count myself lucky as none of my family members or relatives were hurt. Maybe my 'mama' cheated death yesterday but what about the 61 killed, 350 wounded? The death toll rising with every passing second. Most of them must be vegetable vendors and small time business people, trying to make a living in the streets or a mum or a dad or a college goer going to office and college. What about their families? State Government is giving them 3 lakhs as ex gratia and 50 thousand to the wounded! So a life is priced as 3 lakhs and the price of a limb, a lost jaw, a skull is priced at 50k! Even though the State government is acting generous but this blasts could have been averted.

The CM blatantly admits that we had information about the blasts but didn't think will be carried out at such a large scale. The Ministers and everyone in the higher level were clueless! This is the Government we voted for to save us! What about the Centre does it have any answers? 64 blasts in 6 months. Every month there is a blast in a state killing scores of people and wounding and maiming them for life!! To add to the chaos, terrorist groups are united to carry on this anti-India acts. As in the case of yesterday's blast, the needle of suspicion is pointing at ULFA and HuJI militants of Bangladesh and other jihadi groups eventhough ULFA is denying a hand in it. But whoever is to be blamed, they don't have a heart. There are making the common people scapegoats so that they can spread fear and put pressure in the Governments. We are helpless, but we have to live with it since reality is not a movie.

As I watched online in awe, saw people screaming and the streets turning crimson, I sat helpless here, seeing my hometown burned down. I called up my friend who had reached home safely some four hours after the curfew was imposed. She was caught in the shootout in Ganeshguri. People started burning and pelting stones as no adequate disaster management were in place. The fire brigades arrived a full hour late to add to the people's misery. Everything from people to cars were mangled and charred beyond recognition. Many people lives would have been saved if a proper disater management would have been in place.


The news flashes raised the blasts from 3 to 18 and the deaths and injured were in tandem. I couldn't take any more of it. I hated every moment of my existence, thinking I might be one of them and God forbid someone whom I know. A thought passed by that maybe next time I will be in Ganeshguri, I wouldn't be seeing some faces whom I used to pass by. But life goes on for common people like me and the others!!!