For me, SRK is a victim of paranoia than religion. A sense of insecurity that was born soon after some eccentric fellows hijacked and rammed two flights into WTC still permeates our mind and soul. What remains is the body — frisked by securitymen here and there, then and now just to find a terrorist out of us, out of me. But can one change my mind, if I want to take on the world around me with a fearless stride? Will the gun-toting men in uniform be able to stop me from turning into a terrorist?
No doubt, we will point security lapses if an untoward incident takes place, but isn’t it more of intelligence inputs and source building that the men in khaki should work for? Guns only give rise to corruption, it cannot protect a common citizen from being blown up in a blast at a bust stand or crowded station. When I was a student of Class VII, fence and grills were constructed around our hostel and verandahs to stop kids from escaping. But I’m sure children have attempted successfully to escape from the bounds of securitymen at the gate or monks at the hostels in the past 16 years. Forget childhood, even now I am made a victim of paranoia everyday when I take the underground Metro or even entering our office.
The other day I have to explain to a plainclothes policeman at a Metro station why I keep a raincoat during monsoon and why I carry breads in transparent boxes for night shift! Our office is superb in that respect. It has recently made a rule, stating that its employees cannot enter the premises with any printed document, like a book or a magazine or even the day’s newspaper. If you insist that you really read it, you have to get a stamp on it by prying securitymen. They expect some dumb asses will do office work only and cannot read even a book whenever s/he gets bored! What a high level of paranoia — I don’t know how an innocuous piece of paper can harm my colleagues and bosses and who not — it is!
©Supratim Pal, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment