Out of the Comfort Zone

This is a conservation that I had with a friend, just before going to India for the winter break in December 2008.

Me: I am going to cook when I go home in the winter break
Friend: You will have to be careful. You will probably mess up. You cook in larger quantities here as compared to what you would do at home

And how correct he was, this I have been realizing in the past week or so.

With time on hand today, I decided to cook for myself in the afternoon (as compared to cooking for 5 persons (+ 5 i.e the evening meal + next day afternoon lunch at the same time)). I almost messed up the amount of salt and masalas that I needed to add. I ended up adding a little more than what it was needed for a one person meal.

Conclusion – So even if in my wildest dream I had imagined that I had become a “good cook” (good is a very relatively term! ), I have realized that there is a lot more to learn …

I was not going to write a post about the horrific terror attacks on Mumbai that started on the night on 26th November, 2008 and are still going on as I write this, but KV’s post has prompted me to write one. So I would recommend you to read KV’s post 1st before this one.

First off I would not call this terror strike at all. This is bloody war that was launched on the city. There were no bombs planted this time – no car bombs, no cycle bombs or something like that. No planes crashing into buildings too. This is a war – the one that happens on your borders, people walking into the city with AK-47s’ and hand-grenades – shooting without thinking or looking, lobbying hand-grenades and targeting not only Indians but foreign nationals too. We had to call in the Rapid Action Force, National Security Guards and the Army to try to control the situation.

Now to a few questions KV asked –

Why is it that we are not able to prevent such blatant attacks on our home? Is our intelligence system so bad that we had no clue?

Our Intelligence agencies suck big time. Although we have the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research Analysis and Wing (RAW), I guess they hardly do anything. A major part of the blame has to be taken by the Government. I don’t think the govt. provides any resources what so ever to improve these agencies. I wonder which archival technology and methods we are using for intelligence gathering. Secondly we aren’t making a career in these areas attractive enough as it is in the US. Bad pays, political interference are just few of the reasons youth stay away from joining a RAW or an IB.

What do these terrorists want? Perhaps we could make a deal with them if we are too scared to go out and settle scores (atleast that seems to be the case to me a lot of times, and a lot of people will agree)

What do they want? We all know from where these attacks are motivated and what they want. We should not do any deals with them. If we give them “K” now (you know what “K” am talking about), tomorrow they will sit up and ask something else. Its high time, we go out and settle scores with them. Enough of being a soft state. We should not care what the world thinks now, if some actions now are going to help us being secure and safe in the coming days, it is high time we execute those actions now.

What can we as citizens of a civilized society do to protect our interests?

Civilized Society – Don’t get used to these terror attacks. I feel we are becoming numb against all this and getting used to these attacks. I guess since the society is becoming the numb, the govt. is also becoming numb.

More than the civilized society, it is time for the political system of the country to act. It is high time we stop being a soft state. The govt. need to take some tough steps and actions, that it is not taking now and deal with our “troubled neighborhood” (I guess you know what I am referring to)
Wake up India, wake up… seasoned observers have called this India’s 9/11 … so India act tough as US did after 9/11